Leo X OC
by OfficiallyWhelmedSpitfire
Summary: One-shots that I wrote. I decided to post them in one so they aren't all over the place. Up now, "Pay to See You Smile" a request of Loyall for spiesareawesome! .
1. Sleep is a Dangerous Thing

Leo Valdez hadn't been worried about a thing until Nik, his girlfriend's more violent twin, burst into Bunker 9.

"Valdez!" she yelled at him, gasping for breath as she stood outside the door. Leo opened the passage to Bunker 9 and gazed at Nik.

"Hey Nik. What's with the breathless-ness and urgency?" he asked, leaning against the entrance way.

Nik just growled at him, grabbed his wrist, and pulled him out and off on some path.

"Nik, I know I'm awesome, but I belong to Michelle."

Nik rolled her eyes, "This is about Michelle, you flaming idiot."

Leo's eyes widened slightly at that, "Is something wrong?"

Nik rubbed her neck with her free hand, "Kinda…" she said quieter than usual.

Leo pulled his wrist from her grip. "Tell me. What's wrong with my Angel?" now he was mad, when he found the guy that hurt her-

Nik rolled her eyes and faced Leo, "She's been put under some sleeping curse." she cut off Leo's thought.

* * *

><p>Michelle Kelley was having the most wonderful dream, it was a constant flow of moments with Leo throughout their whole relationship, ever since they first met.<p>

_"The name's Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme."_

_Michelle rolls her eyes, "Uh-huh, sure. I'm Michelle Kelley."_

_"Michelle is such a pretty name. And it fits you nicely."_

_Michelle shakes her head, "Leo…I don't even know you."_

_Leo takes her hand, and her icy blues gaze into his warm deep brown orbs, "Do you want to?"_

_Michelle finds herself smiling and nodding, "Actually, yeah." What in Hades was happening to her? What was she doing?_

_Nik crashed in there, "Chelle! We got a serious problem!"_

Then, the scene faded into another one.

* * *

><p>Leo was nervous. What the Hades was he supposed to do? Michelle was under some sleeping curse and all he could do was be dragged by the twin of his sweet Michelle.<p>

"Come on Valdez, that guy that helped Jason when you guys first came here, Clovis? Yeah, he's checking her out right now."

Leo's eyes grew wide, "Really? What if he can't sense what happened to her?"

Nik shrugged with one shoulder , "Dunno, hopefully she'll be okay…" Nik was never unsure or so…unconfident…She was scared. She was NEVER scared, and that scared Leo. He gave her a crazy smile.

"C'mon! This is MICHELLE we're talking about here. Tough, strong, a fighter. An angel." he sighed on the last two words. Nik's eyes widened at him, then, they were at the Athena cabin.

"Okay, c'mon Lee, let's see what's up with your girlfriend…"

* * *

><p>Michelle's dream continued with the next best moment throughout their whole knowing-each-other stage.<p>

_Michelle laughed as she shot an ice beam at Leo's feet. "Who knew a daughter of Athena could control ice?"_

_Nik smiled as an electric blue bolt of electricity hit Leo's feet, "Or electric blue lightning?" she asked incredulously._

_Leo rolled his eyes as he melted his feet, "You guys love to abuse me."_

_"Well, duh." the twins chimed together._

_Percy chose then to challenge the twins and Leo. "Michelle and Leo versus Nik and I." he said._

_Michelle scrunched up her nose, "Why me and Valdez?" she asked._

_Leo feigned hurt, "What do you have against me, Kelley?" he asked._

_Michelle rolled her eyes, ignoring his question. "Besides, fire and ice don't work together." she crosses her arms over her chest._

_Nik glanced at Percy, "And water and electricity don't work well either, I could shock you."_

_Within twenty minutes, Michelle glared at Leo, their wrists had been duct-taped together. "This is all your fault." she muttered to Leo._

_Percy and Nik smiled at the two, then high-fived, "I guess electricity and water work better together than fire and ice." Nik laughed._

_Michelle and Leo shared a dark smirk, then, cupping their own hands, they pushed all their power at the two, fire and ice combined somewhere in the middle of bursting from their owners hands and hitting their opponents, becoming an explosion that knocked them all off their feet. Which was difficult for Michelle and Leo to get up from. They somehow managed and stood above Percy and Nik._

_"Or not." Michelle replied smugly._

_Leo laughed, "Ice Queen's got a point."_

_Michelle whapped him with his own hand on the cheek. "Shut it Fire Lord." she said referencing Avatar: The Last Airbender._

_Leo's eyes grew wide, "How did you-"_

_Michelle cut him off with a smirk, "You left the door open to Bunker 9 yesterday." She whispered, then laughed. Leo blushed, embarrassed._

_By now, Percy and Nik were back on their feet. And really confused._

_"What are you two talking about?" Nik asked increduously._

_Michelle winked at Leo, like, " This is our secret." Then to Nik, she smiled, "Oh, I was just referencing our old favorite T.V. show Nikki, ya know, Avatar?"_

_Nik nods and blushes, "Oh, right."_

_Leo had been really thankful._

* * *

><p>Leo took a deep breath, then entered the cabin with Nik. Annabeth, Percy, and Clovis, were standing awkwardly around Michelle's bunk. Everyone's eyes swung to Leo.<p>

"Hey guys." he croaked.

Percy gave him a sympathetic smile.

Annabeth's eyes went back to Michelle, "What's wrong with her, exactly?"

Clovis backed away from Michelle's face, "Well, it's hard to explain. The curse could've come from anyone associated with Hypnos or Hecate, though, from how specific it is, it seems like a Hypnos curse to me."

Leo finally spoke up, "So how do we undo it?" he asked through gritted teeth.

The son Hypnos shook his head, "Not sure. As far as I can tell, she's dreaming about everything that went down with you." he pointed at Leo, "I think she's gonna need to go through your whole relationship, then you need to pull a Sleeping Beauty and kiss her awake."

Leo turned red.

Nik burst out laughing. "Michelle's getting her fairytale alright."

Annabeth shook her head, "There has to be a more logical solution."

The baby-cow-boy shook his own head, "Nope, this is the only way I can sense to wake her up."

Leo nodded, "Just let me know when she's done with the dreams."

Percy shot him a real smile, "Chelle's strong, she'll be cool."

Leo nodded. "Yeah, she'll be cool." he repeated, "She is Ice Queen after all." he smirked.

* * *

><p>Michelle was still dreaming, and it had to be a dream, because it was too perfect to be anything else.<p>

_Michelle was watching the sun set over the Long Island Sound, sitting on the dock, kicking her bare feet in the cooling, calm water. Leo Valdez barely fit next to her on the dock as he came and sat down._

_"Sure is pretty tonight, huh?" she asks, watching the sinking sun._

_"Yeah, it really is." Leo says, looking at her. Her long light brown hair drifted airily in the evening breeze, her eyes bright in light of the orange setting sun. Leo thought there'd never been anyone more beautiful. _

_"Just do it! She's only a girl! Whats the worst she can do?"_

_"Reject you." Muttered his brain._

_"Not helping!" he muttered back._

_Then, he took the plunge._

_"Michelle, I need to tell you something."_

_Those sparkling, icy eyes turned to him, curious and kind, yet expectant, "Yeah Leo?"_

_"I really like you."_

_She smiles brightly, "I like you too, we've become so close in the past few weeks." He noticed she didn't say they'd become "good friends", was this a good sign?_

_Leo nods, "Yeah, we have, but, I really like you. Like, I like you like you." She doesn't even grimace at his poor choice of words, he'd definitely found a keeper, as long as she liked him, too, that is._

_Michelle's eyes widened only slightly before she leaned forward and planted the softest, most innocent kiss Leo could imagine on his lips._

_"I like you like you too, Leo." she gave a small giggle._

_Leo nodded, "So, uh, you wanna go to the Fourth of July fireworks with me?" he asked, casually putting his arms behind his head, like a cartoon character._

_Michelle nodded, then frowned, "Won't you basically be running the fireworks? I mean, not only are you the head Hepheastus counselor, but you love those fireworks."_

_Leo nods, "Yeah, I know. But I'm sure I can find some time to slip out and be with my girlfriend."_

_Michelle nods again, smiling, "Then it's settled. I'll see you later." she kisses him innocently once more before pulling herself onto the dock and dashing off for her cabin._

_Leo smiles to himself, "Told you it'd work out." he tells his brain as he goes back to his own cabin before curfew._

* * *

><p>Leo was getting antsy. Michelle hadn't opened her eyes in the past hour, Clovis was sitting too close to her for Leo's comfort, and everyone was staring at him as he paced. "Shouldn't she be done by now? I mean, we'e only known each other for-"<p>

Nik cut him off, "Six months, at least. That's a lot of time where she could have had any influential time with you."

Clovis placed a hand on her forehead, "Looks like she's just now moving on from you finally asking her out on the docks."

Leo blushed again.

Annabeth's grey eyes zeroed in on her younger half-sister. "Why is she under this spell in the first place?"

The son of Hypnos shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe she angered Aphrodite, and Aphrodite convinced Hypnos to put this specific spell on her? Maybe she's trying to make Michelle realize something…" he trailed off towards the end, looking at Leo. "Did you two fight before this?" he asked. Nik's eyes turned to straight electricity, "For Zeus' sake! This is all because she's thinking of breaking up with you?!" the awake twin gripped her hair. "Aphrodite put my twin sister to sleep because she was gonna screw up one of Aphrodite's fairytales!? That goddess, I swear to Zeus…" the electric blue-eyed twin muttered.

Percy's sea green eyes widened, "Wait, the goddess of love is messing with ANOTHER romance?! Didn't she get enough screwing with The Argo II crew's?" He shook his head in disgust, "Now he's screwing with Chelle's…"

Annabeth looked at Percy like he was stupid, "Seaweed Brain, Leo is part of the Argo II crew, maybe that's why she's screwing up Michelle's love life."

Leo punched his fist into his other hand, "That love goddess is more annoying than Khione." he grumbled.

The Hypnos guy was waving at everyone to shut up, "I think she's coming to her last few dreams. Right now there's a fight, I'm sensing a make-up, then another fight, that should be it."

Leo glared at Clovis, "How much longer should it be then?"

He shrugged, "No way to tell, could be five minutes or forty-five minutes."

"Great. And today's our anniversary. Five months, she's gonna miss all of it…I even had an awesome present. AND IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH MECHANICS FOR ONCE!" Leo erupted.

Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, "Leo, chill out, she'll wake up before the day is over." Nik assured.

"I hope your right…" he trailed off.

* * *

><p>Michelle's sweet dream had ended, and now, she was in the middle of her first fight with Leo. Talk about a nightmare...<p>

_"YOU'RE DOING WHAT?!" Michelle exploded._

_"DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE?!" Leo responded._

_"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SWEAR ON THAT STUPID RIVER?! NOW YOU'RE GONNA! YOU'RE GONNA-" Michelle cut herself off, bursting into tears. Leo touched her shoulder, she shook him off._

_"Leo, you're gonna fall in love with her again! And you'll bring her home, and rub it in my face, and we'll be over, because you fell in love with a damn goddess! Again! And I'll be nothing to you! And we'll be over! And you'll break my heart!" she pulls a charm off her camp necklace, and throws it at Leo, "So let me do it for you." she says before running back to her cabin. Leo barely catches it and looks at the charm. He'd made it for her, for their one-month anniversary. It was an ice shard, a flame sitting upon the ice. On the flame was two letters, M.K. And on the ice was another set of initials, L.V. Stating that he was hers, and she was his. She said she'd treasure it always. Now she was giving it back without a second thought._

_Leo's eyes started sweating._

_That's right, his eyes were sweating, because Leo Valdez did not cry._

_Not even over foolishly losing the girl of his dreams._

_He wanted to catch her, but it was almost curfew, and she was already in Cabin Eleven._

_Heading back to Cabin Nine, he clutches the charm to his chest, clipping it on his own bead necklace. She'd given him a charm too, but she was horrible with crafts, so she'd gotten his specially designed at a jewelry store. It was a simple flame charm, on the back was the inscription, "Who knew fire and ice were so good when they got together?" And that was a direct quote from Michelle herself. She'd said that shortly after they'd officially gotten together._

_Michelle, was acting differently, back at her cabin. Before she went in, she wiped her eyes, cleared her throat, and composed herself, before cheerily stepping over the threshold to the inside of the Athena cabin. Nik had spied it as an act the second she came in, but waited until everyone else was too busy in their late-night projects to climb down to her twin and ask, "What happened?"_

_Michelle tried so hard to state it matter-of-factly, she'd tried so hard. But her objective point-of-view slowly became subjective, and she burst into quiet tears. Nik just hugged her and let her cry, the angry, older sister glint appearing in her eyes. Nik was only older by ten minutes, but she still felt that protective older sister instinct whenever Michelle got upset._

_"I'll kill him." were the older twin's first words as the younger one finished explaining what had happened. Michelle gripped Nik's arm. "No."_

_"What d'ya mean 'no'?"_

_"No. You will not fight my battles anymore, Nikki. I know you care, but you have to let me fight this one on my own." the icy-eyed twin smirks in the low-light. "I have to prove I'm just as strong as any other child of Athena. I have to prove I'm worthy to be her child."_

_"You sound like Annabeth before her solo quest in Rome." Nik remarks, rolling her electric eyes. The older twin removes her tear-stained self from her younger twin sister, and climbs back to her own bunk. She was snoring in seconds._

_Michelle's icy eyes glinted in the dark, small tears formed in her eyes, "Leo, you've hurt me so much. I only want you to know that pain…" the sweeter of the twins thought darkly. She wanted him to know what it felt like for the one you love to leave you, both literally and figuratively, for another. He was leaving her for a GODDESS after all. Her high I.Q'ed brain spun with possible candidates, but none seemed good enough to make Leo hurt as much as she did. She nearly growled with the frustration._

_"Leo…" she'd sighed dreamily before drifting to sleep._

_In the morning she woke up bright and early, intent on squeezing what Leo's plan was out of him. She set off for his cabin. When she found his bed empty, she frowned, and went to Bunker 9._

_There, she found Leo, Jason, and Percy. Leo was moving his hands in an animated way, "And then she just explodes that I'm gonna fall for Calypso again! And she gave me back her one-month anniversary gift!" Leo was incredulous._

_Jason and Percy shared a pained expression, "Dude," Percy started._

_"She kinda has a right to be pissed right?" Jason continued._

_Leo nodded slightly, "I guess, yeah. But I'm not in love with Calypso. How could I fall in love with her again, Michelle's pretty cool, ya know?" he seemed to be asking himself more than the boys. Michelle turned from the bunker. disappointed with herself. "How could I think such rude things?! How could I crush him like that?" she asked herself, hugging herself and walking towards the lake._

_"Michelle."_

_Her name was a breath. And the breath was close, hot on her neck, he was almost stepping on her heels._

_"Leo." she breathed back. Leo pulled her to him in a hug from behind, and Michelle leaned into him, her eyes shutting blissfully as she soaked in the scent of smoke and grease._

_"Grease Monkey." she thought in a blissful, giggly sigh._

_"Ice Queen." he breathed aloud. His voice was right in her ear. She held back an involuntary shiver._

_"Human Torch." she giggled._

_"I'm sorry."_

_"I'm sorry."_

_They said it as one. Michelle looked over her shoulder at him, her half-smile lit up the world. Before, everything had seemed dull, lifeless, though the color was there, it was so, un-bright. When he saw that half-smile of hers, all the color whooshed back into the world. Everything was brighter, more saturated, she'd lit up the world in a way he never imagined anyone could._

_"Baby," he started, and Michelle grimaced, bracing herself for the silly song about to escape the Boy on Fire's lips. "You light up my world like nobody else." he sang. Michelle cracked an eye open._

_"Are you done? Is the horrible music over?"_

_"Are you insulting my singing voice, Ice Queen?"_

_"Not at all Fire Lord, it's just your song of choice that I have a high distaste for." she giggled, turning herself so she properly faced him._

_"I don't love her Michelle."_

_"You will. When you see her again." the young ice controller said sadly._

_"How could I fall in love with someone else, when I have perfection right in front of me?"_

_"Leo, she's a goddess, you could fall in love with her if she were turned into a rock." the girl rolls those icy orbs._

_"No, because I've got my goddess, right here, in my arms."_

_"Leo, I-"_

_"Michelle." there he went, breathing her name in that way that melted her into a puddle._

_"What?"_

_"I love you. No goddess can compare to you. Except maybe Aphrodite, but that's only because she'd look like you." he jokes, he couldn't stop it, the moment was too tense, he need air to breathe._

_"I love you, too, Grease Monkey."_

_"Grease Monkey?! I find that offensive. I'm a Greasy Repair Boy." he says proudly._

_"Grease Monkey?"_

_"Hmm?"_

_"Just shut up and kiss me you doof."_

_And he did. He cupped her face in his hands and pulled her face to his. Her fists tugged at his wild curls, and his hands came to a rest at the small of her back. She cupped her hands behind his head and pulled him even closer to her. She was practically standing on his toes at this point, holding herself to Leo, being this close, there were so many right things in that moment._

_Until she heard the familiar sound of a throat being cleared._

_The two jerked away from each other. Michelle and Leo peered over his shoulder to see Percy and Jason almost gawking at them._

_Percy was the first to recover, his mouth forming a straight line. "Well Jason, I'd say they've made up."_

_Jason just nods, his mouth still flapping open._

_Michelle quietly disentangles herself from Leo, and gently closes Jason's mouth._

_Jason grimaced his thanks as Michelle walked back over and placed herself back in Leo's arms._

_"Boys?" Michelle prodded, knowing the two were going to scold them._

_Percy just smiles and shakes his head, "Just don't break her again…Grease Monkey." he mocks._

_Leo smirks, "Whatever you say Kelp Head." he remarks._

_Jason still can't respond, he's that shocked. He does manage to shakily point at Michelle and say, "But…" then point to Leo and say, "I-I thought…" Percy just rolls his eyes and jerks Jason off by the arm, "I'll explain once the shock has worn off, Grace." he says._

_Michelle turns herself back to Leo, "Now, where were we?" she asks._

_"I think it was something like this." he pulls her to him, placing her hands gently behind his head, pulling her up onto his toes. He leans his forehead to hers, "I love you Michelle Kelley."_

_"I love you, too, Leo Valdez. Now shut up an-"_

_He cut her off by pressing his mouth firmly to hers._

* * *

><p>Leo was still pacing. It'd been another half-hour and he didn't know how much longer he could wait. The Hypnos boy pulled his hand from Michelle's forehead, where it had been resting since he'd last spoke. He shook himself all over. "Well THERE'S one thing I never wanted to see." he shivers, then pulls himself together, the only thing that had kept him awake for so long was because he basically fell asleep every time he placed his hand back on Michelle's forehead.<p>

Annabeth and Percy had gone off for the lunch bell. Nik was the only one who refused to leave besides the sleeping Hypnos boy and Leo, who'd also refused to leave her. Speaking of the sleeping Hypnos boy, he stretched and yawned before explaining what was left for Michelle.

"Well, I sense the final fight scene, perhaps another make-ou- I mean, make-up scene, and then you can kiss her awake."

Leo nodded, Jason came in then.

"C'mon dude, you haven't eaten all day, I know Michelle likes you as scrawny as you are, but I think she'd be pretty mad if we didn't make sure you were fed."

Leo crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not leaving this room."

Jason smirks, "I kinda figured, so I brought you and Nikki here a couple of magical plates and cups." he walks into the cabin and hands each a plate and cup.

Nik's plate immediately fills with shrimp, and her cup fills with some dark brown, syrupy liquid Leo could only identify as Coca-Cola. Non-diet, as she doesn't want to discredit Mr. D's favored drink.

Leo's plate whips up a hamburger and fries, while his cup fills with Cherry Pepsi. Michelle liked Pepsi, so he figured he owed it to her. While they eat, Michelle's final dream is wrapping up.

* * *

><p>Michelle couldn't remember why they were fighting again.<p>

_"I'm sorry." she said, still having no memory of their previous fight._

_"So am I." Leo responds, pulling the shorter brunette to him with a smirk. Michelle matches his smirk and places a gentle, soft kiss on Leo's mouth. He holds her there, and the sweet and gentle kiss slowly escalates into a need, as if her very last breaths of oxygen were in that boy._

_Several minutes later the couple pull apart, panting._

_"Leo…" Michelle wheezes._

_"Yeah?" he asks, almost as out of breath as she._

_"I love you."_

_"I love you too."_

_After gaining back her breath, Michelle places one last kiss on Leo's temple, before pulling herself from him completely. She felt sweaty, and sticky, and in major need of a shower. She noticed sweat glistening on Leo's forehead, and lets out a puff of ice breath, to cool them._

* * *

><p>Leo had finished his lunch, and was now awaiting the pressing doom of whether Michelle would awaken or not. He popped a few breath mints as Clovis pulled his hand from Michelle's forehead for the final time.<p>

"She's done, you have two minutes before the scenes loop again. For now, she's in the dark."

The boy stands up and stumbles to the door, almost falling asleep twice before reaching his own cabin.

Leo takes a deep breath as he steps up to Michelle's bed.

"I'm sorry this happened to you, Angel." he said, before pressing his mouth firmly to hers. All of the anxiety of the previous few hours erupts in all the passion and heartache he'd been holding in all day. Leo puts every last drop of emotion in himself into the kiss that will awaken the girl of his dreams.

When he has to catch his breath, he pulls his face merely centimeters from hers.

"_Will she awaken?"_

* * *

><p>Michelle's eyes shoot open and gaze into familiar deep brown ones.<p>

Her hands immediately grab for his face, pulling it to hers again.

"I knew you'd save me Grease Monkey." she breathes before pulling his mouth to hers again.

Now it was her turn to return all the passion in every molecule in her body.

When they pull apart shortly after, Percy and Annabeth had returned to see them.

Nik is calmly avoiding Michelle's eyes.

And Leo's gazing at her so lovingly that she wants to kiss him again, but she restrains herself, and instead, has him help her stand, and sit on the ground. Nik passes Michelle a cup of water, which she downs vigorously, before stating, "What'd I miss?"

Leo smirks and puts an arm around her shoulders, kissing her temple. "That's a story for another time." he says calmly.

There's a long, loud growl from Michelle's stomach.

"I'm starving, apparently." she states, as if still in a dreamy state.

Everyone laughs nervously as Nik passes her twin a plate.

A pile of shrimp appears and she smiles, "Even when I don't know what I want, the plate does."


	2. Lips of an Angel

**Disclaimer: Don't own Leo or any other PJO or HOO characters. Or the Argo II or Buford the Flying Table.**

**I wrote this forever ago, based off the song.**

_"My girl's in the next room_

_Sometimes I wish she was you._

_I guess we never really moved on."_

_-"Lips of an Angel" Hinder_

* * *

><p>Leo's phone erupted into "Lips of an Angel" while he examined Buford, one of the few pieces to survive the Argo II destruction. He fumbled to pick it up, that had been Michelle's ringtone, he'd forgotten to change it soon after they broke up, which had happened after he saved Calypso.<p>

And then he'd gotten together with Calypso.

"Hey." she barely breathed, Michelle's cool voice, light as the icy color of her eyes.

"Hey." he said.

"How are you Leo?"

"I'm" he gulped air, "I'm fine. Looking Buford over, he was acting up yesterday."

Her ice on ice laugh filled his ear, "Sounds like typical Buford." she paused, as if in thought, "Is this a bad time?"

Leo shook his head, and dumbly remembered they were on the phone, she couldn't see him.

"Not at all." he smiled.

* * *

><p>Calypso, meanwhile, was contently "channel surfing" as she had learned the term as, in the other room. She heard Leo's muffled ringtone, then his hushed tones, and was immediately at the door, eavesdropping. She knew how wrong it was, that she should trust him. But ever since he'd taken her back after that Michelle girl, she felt as if his heart wasn't completely hers...<p>

"No, Michelle, it's not like that. Calypso's, Calypso..."

Calypso kept back an astonished gasp. He was talking to Michelle? About her?

He'd paused as Michelle spoke on the other end of the line. Then said, "She's a bit like Hazel was, ya know, a little clueless about the modern world. She didn't know about channel surfing." Calypso could hear Michelle's laughter. She stomped off, rage building. 'I loved him first!' she thought angrily. 'He was mine first! It's not his fault he had to leave!' She screwed up her eyes tight, "I hate her." she breathed. Calypso wrote a quick note in her calligraphic handwriting,

_Leo,_

_I've gone to speak to Michelle._

_To tell her you're with me, so she won't bother you anymore._

_I'm sorry you had to deal with her over the phone._

_I love you,_

_Calypso_

* * *

><p>On Michelle's end, however, Will was busy, and she'd been so bored, she figured, 'Eh, why not call Lee? We could still be friends.'<p>

Boy was she wrong.

The second he spoke, she melted, puddled.

Just like when they were younger.

"Hey." she'd breathed.

"Hey." he'd breathed back.

Michelle had started with the usual, "How are you Leo?"

And he'd responded something about Buford the Flying Table.

"Typical Buford right?" she asked, smiling.

He seemed to be smiling, but she knew Calypso was nearby, he was talking quietly, like he didn't want her to hear. So naturally, she'd added, "Is this a bad time?"

"No." had been his response, and she'd mentally squealed like a teenage girl getting a text message from her crush with a heart.

"That's great. How've things been?" she asked.

She could HEAR Valdez blushing over the phone.

"They've uh, they've been good. And you?"

"Fine, Will's busy with some Apollo camp stuff." she rolled her eyes. Leo gave a small laugh. "Yeah well, Calypso's, Calypso."

"She's a bit clueless then?"

"She's a bit like Hazel was, yeah. She didn't even know about channel surfing." Michelle couldn't help but laugh. "Even Hazel knew about channel surfing."

"She's been alone on an island for centuries, there was no T.V."

"Not even cable?" Michelle gasped in fake surprise. She laughed again and glanced back at Will at his desk, he seemed to be finishing up. "I better let you go bro…" she started.

Leo sighed, "Yeah, I better check on her."

"See ya around, Fire Lord."

"Whatever, Ice Queen."

They hung up.

* * *

><p>Back at Leo's, he walked into the room where Calypso had been and found her note.<p>

"Ah, Hades! I better warn Chelle!" He dialed her, but was sent to voicemail.

"Damn!" he grabbed his jacket and his wallet, then set out for the quickest bus to Long Island.

* * *

><p><em>The next day…<em>

* * *

><p>Leo arrived at Michelle's place around 7AM the next morning he was pulling in right behind Calypso.<p>

"Don't do this!"

Calypso turned, her eyes angry, "I have to! She's still part of your heart! And I must have all of it."

Leo shook his head. "No, Calypso. You don't have to have all of my heart. And if you do, you aren't the girl I thought you were." Michelle stepped out of the brownstone house and rubbed her tired eyes.

"Mr. Callowitz keep it-" She cut off when she who it was. "What are you two doing here?" she asked curiously. She leaned against the shut door behind her. She wore a white tank top and ice blue capri-like pajama pants, her hair in a messy ponytail.

Leo thought she'd never looked prettier. "Hey Chelle. Someone heard us talking last night, freaked out, and came here to kill you." he glared at Calypso.

Michelle looked at Calypso, confusion scribbled on her face. "Really Calypso? Why would you want me dead?"

"Because Leo still loves you!" Calypso lunged for her.

Michelle ducked, and whipped the dagger that she always kept connected to her ankle, from her ankle. She pinned Calypso to the door and held the dagger under her chin. "Two things. NEVER attack a daughter of Athena, I'm always prepared." she glanced at Leo, then continued, "And secondly, Leo loves you. He chose you after all."

"Only because you were already with Will!" Calypso retorted, she thrust Michelle off of her.

"I broke up with Will!"

"Why?"

The question had come from Leo, it was soft, almost like he cared.

"Because, I realized that I never really…got a hundred percent over you." she scratched behind her head. Calypso tackled Michelle so they looked piggyback. Leo's eyes widened as Michelle crashed on her back, knocking the wind outta the both of them. Michelle sprung up and pinned Calypso, holding the dagger to her throat again.

"You seriously need to stop putting yourself in this position." Michelle told her.

Will then stumbled out of the brownstone house, rubbing his own tired eyes. "Mr. Callowitz! You seriously-" he cut off when he saw Michelle pinning Calypso and Leo standing off to the side sheepishly.

"Dude!" Will stated to Leo as Calypso struggled under Michelle's grasp. "What happened this time?" the newcomer walked over and stood next to Leo. He wore a faded white t-shirt and a pair of black basketball shorts.

Leo shrugged, narrowing his eyes at Michelle, "Broke up with Will, huh?"

Michelle rolled her ice blue orbs, "Like I was supposed to kick him out on the streets Valdez? Even Hades ain't that cruel!" she blew her bangs from in front of her eyes, shifting it to the left some. Calypso continued to buck Michelle off her, but Michelle held fast.

"You're girlfriend is seriously WEAK, for a goddess, Fire Lord." she spit the word "weak" at Calypso before letting her up and helping the previously abandoned goddess to her feet.

"You're not even worth the energy, Princess." Michelle said, spatting the last word at her. Calypso rolled her eyes, but refused to fight the daughter of Athena again.

There was an awkward silence.

Michelle shook her head then grabbed Will's wrist and pulled him back in the house, slamming the door behind them.

You could hear hushed yelling, mainly from Michelle, as the two decided where to go from there. Leo decided he and Calypso needed to have a similar conversation.

"Maybe we should take a note from Michelle and Will here."

"I do not know what you mean, Leo." Calypso said, very confused.

Leo took one of her hands and looked in to her warm, brown eyes. "Calypso, I love you, I loved you as soon as I met you, but then, I had to leave. And we beat Gaea, and I came home…"

"And you met Michelle." she continued.

He sighed, "And I met Michelle. And I fell in love with her. Her laugh, her smile, the cute way her whole face scrunches up when she gets mad. But that doesn't mean I got totally over you." Leo took a shaky breath as he continued, he then laughed bitterly at a memory. "We've actually fought a few times about me saving you. I swore on the Styx, ya know…She didn't want me to save you, got scared I'd fall for you again. Guess she was right huh? She finally trusted me to go, I finally got your ass off that island, and I'd completely fallen for you again."

"Just like I knew you would." Michelle's now-quiet voice spoke out, cutting off Leo as he finished his sentence. The door was open, Will was leaning against one side of the frame, Michelle leaned against the other.

"Please, don't let me stop you from doing what you have to do, I was just showing Will out. He's gonna stay at camp until he can get a place in the city." she continued, gesturing to a now dressed Will, who carried a few suitcases. Michelle placed a wad of cash for a cab in his mouth, considering his full hands, and waved him good-bye. Will walked out, immediately trying to flag down a cab. Michelle laughed, then, noticing she'd interrupted the two, she smiled apologetically and creeped back into the house. Leo continued from where he left off.

"Just like she knew I would."

"So, you broke up with her for me."

"If we're being completely honest…No, she broke up with me…But only because she knew how much I loved you."

"So, you were never totally over her to begin with?"

"But I never got totally over you either."

"Then I guess we're at a crossroads, Leo. Once again you must choose. Me, or Michelle."

Michelle exited her house once more, "I heard Calypso ask for your decision, so I figured I could come out." She was now dressed, though her hair was still in a ponytail, it was much more controlled, like she actually brushed it back in to a ponytail. She wore ice blue denim capris, a white tank top and white flip flops. Her dark hair having been swept out of her face made her eyes pop and look icier than usual. Leo looked back at Calypso, whom wore a white flowy tank top, showing off her sun-kissed tan, whereas Michelle had only a slight one, she'd always been pale. Calypso's dark wavy hair hung around her face, framing her dark eyes and making them sparkle like obsidian. She wore dark wash denim capris and white flip flops as well. Leo smiled at each girl, then frowned at each. He then further teased them by pretending to play "eeny meeny minee moe". Each girl glared at him until he stopped. He sighed and threw up his hands in utter defeat.

"How can you make me choose?"

"Like this." the girls spoke in unison, which didn't even faze them as they forced him to look into their eyes. He looked in Calypso's warm, brown ones first. The felt homey and spacious. Free and calm. They felt safe. He looked into Michelle's icy ones then, they felt familiar and knowing, patient and kind, trusting and smart. Michelle knew him, her eyes may have been familiar, but they no longer felt like home. Calypso's felt like home. Yet, he still could not bring himself to decide. Calypso didn't know him like Michelle did, she may have known his pain of constant rejection, but she didn't know what burden he held. Calypso didn't know how unloved he felt everyday. Michelle did though. And while her eyes may no longer hold the warmth of home, they held a promise of holding that feeling again if given the chance.

"I refuse to decide."

"Well, you can't have both of us." Michelle smart-alecked. Much like how she'd smart-alecked about turning him into steam when they first started going out.

Leo smirked, "So I'll have neither of you. Michelle, you can be with Will again. And Calypso," he turned to the exotic beauty, "You are welcome to stay with me until you can find a place of your own. Maybe I can set something up at Camp Half-Blood. Until then you can stay in the guest room."

Nik, Michelle's much more violent and accusatory twin stepped from the house then, dressed in black yoga pants and an oversized electric blue tee, she raised her hand in the air, waving it like a kid desperately wanting to be called on in class.

"She can stay with me and Connor."

"Stoll?" Leo asked, incredulous.

The electric blue eyed twin rolled her eyes and nodded, "Yes, Valdez, Connor Stoll. We've been seeing each other since before you left my twin to find Little Miss Perfect over here. We've only been living together for a few months though. We have a spare room Island Girl can stay in until she finds her own way here in the big N.Y." Michelle smiled toothily at her twin, silently thanking her for making this all less awkward. Leo looked at Calypso, "I promise you'll be safe with them. They may prank you, but they'll never severely injure you, ever." Nik placed her right hand on her heart and held up her left in promise. "I'll freaking swear on a stack of Bibles, Princess." she commented. "The worst you'll ever get from us is pranks and teasing about Grease Monkey. And we'll help you look for jobs and a place to stay. Connor's actually pretty good at house hunting." Michelle had been silent this whole time, and Leo found it slightly suspicious. Nik rolled her eyes, "And Michelle's usually too busy to come around our house anyways so you'll barely even know she lives in the same area code."

Calypso smiled, "So, when do I move in?"

Nik shrugged, "When can you get all your stuff?"

Calypso smiled wider, "Right now. I'll go back to Leo's place and grab my stuff. Then I'll meet you back here and you can show me to you and this Connor Stoll's place."

Nik nodded, satisfied. "Alright, try and get back sometime today though, I don't plan to stick around Chelle's place for very long." Calypso nodded, and dashed off for her vehicle to take back to Manhattan.

Leo and Michelle just stared at each other.

Nik slowly walked back into the house, shutting the door behind her.

"So…" Michelle said.

"So…" Leo said.

"I never got a hundred percent over you either." Leo said, wanting to establish what he'd meant when he'd been talking to Calypso.

"Yeah, well, same…"

"I never wanted to hurt you."

"Why do you think I broke up with you before you went to get Calypso? It wasn't just so you'd feel free to fall for her again, Repair Boy."

"Really?"

"Yeah…It was also kinda for me. I figured if I dumped you before you left, and you fell in love with her again and brought her back, then it wouldn't sting so much. But, it didn't go the way I'd hoped…"

"Oh? Then how did it go?"

"It only hurt more. I kept thinking that maybe if I had stayed with you, you wouldn't have fallen for her."

Leo was silent.

"But I think it was inevitable either way. And it probably would've hurt more, and much longer, if I had stayed with you."

"I see." Leo's voice was hoarse.

"I think we should still be done, Valdez."

"As you wish it, Kelley."

Michelle could no longer hold herself back. She ran to Leo, hugging him tight. He hugged her back, and they just stayed there for a few minutes, hugging each other to death. When Michelle finally decided she needed to breathe, she released him, and he, in turn, released her. Michelle caught her breath before pecking his cheek. She then ran into the brownstone house. She needed to talk to her twin about all of the insanity.

Leo needed to talk to Festus, so he decided a trip to camp was in order. He flagged down a cab, and directed him to camp. He waved at the house until it was out of sight.

"I'm sure she's gonna miss you, kid."

"Huh?" Leo asked, the cab driver had just talked to him, or, so he thought…

"You're girl back home, she's gonna miss you while you're out on business, I'm sure."

"Nah," Leo replied with a smirk in the rearview. "Chelle's not like that."

* * *

><p><strong>Okay...This sucks...It was written a while ago and yeah...<strong>

**Sorry.**


	3. Don't Take the Girl

_Johnny's daddy was taking him fishin'_

_When he was eight years old._

_Little girl came through the front gate_

_Holdin' a fishin' pole_

Leo Valdez glared at Michelle Kelley as she skipped through his front gate with an ice blue plastic fishing pole. He then turned his glare to his red one, to Percy, then back to Michelle. Percy Jackson and he were going fishing. Michelle was apparently coming along too. He rolled his eyes.

_His dad looked down and smiled_

_Said "We can't leave her behind._

_Son, I know you don't want her to go,_

_But someday you'll change your mind."_

Percy smiled and waved over the shy Michelle, "C'mon Michelle."

Michelle shook her head and nodded at the glaring Leo in front of her.

Percy pulled Leo aside, and held up a finger to Michelle, explaining to give them a minute. "Leo, I promised her mom I'd watch her today. Besides, one day you'll thank me for this."

_And Johnny said,_

_"Take Jimmy Johnson._

_Take Tommy Thompson._

_Take my best friend Bo."_

Leo glared at Percy, "Take Frank Zhang! Or Jason Grace! Or my best friend Will!" he yelled at Percy

_"Take anybody that you want as_

_Long as she don't go._

_Take any boy in the world,_

_Daddy please, don't take the girl."_

"Or Mrs. Jackson! Or Mrs. Grace! Take anybody that you want! Or any other boy in the world! Just don't take her!" Leo pointed at Michelle as he yelled the last part. Percy took a deep breath.

"She's coming Leo. Now come on." He waved Michelle over, and she dutifully agreed, coming over to stand behind Percy, hiding from Leo.

Leo glared at her through Percy. "GO HOME!"

"NO!" Michelle screamed back, stepping from behind Percy and glaring her ice blue eyes into Leo's fiery brownish-red ones.

Leo muttered, "Fine!" and stalked off to Percy's car.

Percy took Michelle's hand and lead her over to his car, where he'd put in Michelle and Leo's carseats from their mothers. They were on opposite sides and after Percy had buckled them, they faced their windows, arms folded and glaring. Percy sat in the driver's seat and took off.

* * *

><p><em>Same old boy, same sweet girl<em>

_Ten years down the road._

_He held her tight and kissed her lips in_

_Front of the picture show._

"Great movie." Michelle said quietly as they stepped from the theatre.

Leo smiled, "Really? I was too busy watching you to notice."

Michelle blushed, "Oh, Leo-"

Leo suddenly grabbed her and kissed her on the lips.

They pulled from each other and blushed.

_Stranger came and pulled a gun_

_Grabbed her by the arm, said "If you do what I tell you to_

_There won't be any harm."_

Some stranger seeped from the shadows of an alley and grabbed Michelle by the arm, causing her to shriek. Leo stopped as he glanced at the gun against Michelle's head.

"Do what I tell you to, and this bullet won't go through her head." the stranger sneered.

_And Johnny said, "Take my money._

_Take my wallet,_

_Take my credit cards._

_Here's the watch my grandpa gave me._

Leo threw the guy his wallet. "Take my wallet, my money, these baseball cards." He pulled the magic watch from his father and threw it on the ground next to the wallet, "This watch from my dad." Michelle just whimpered as Leo threw all his prized stuff on the ground.

_Here's the keys to my car._

_Mister give it a whirl,_

_But please,_

_Don't take the girl._

"Here's my keys! Dude, it's that cool red and orange hotrod over there. Just don't take her! Don't take my girl!" The stranger grabbed the wallet and the keys as sirens screamed down the street. As she was released Michelle froze the guy's feet, he dropped the keys and wallet before he fell on his face. The cops pulled up and loaded him in the back for attempted robbery and threatening murder. Michelle picked up all of Leo's stuff and handed it to him. He put his wallet and keys in his toolbelt, (Yes, he still wears that thing! This is Leo for Zeus' sake! XD) and put the watch back on his wrist before pulling Michelle to him. "Gods are you okay, babe?" Michelle could only whimper, nod and sob in response. Leo pulled her closer, her face buried in his shoulder.

"Lee?"

"Yeah?"

"Th-thank you."

Leo gripped her tighter, a determined look on his face, "Chelle, I swear to the gods NO ONE will take you from me."

* * *

><p><em>Same old boy<em>

_Same sweet girl_

_Five years down the road_

_There's gonna be a little one and she_

_Says it's time to go._

"Leo?!" Michelle said slightly panicked.

"Is it time, Chelle?"

Michelle could only nod as another contraction rocked her body.

Leo loaded her into the car and they drove to the hospital, twelve hours later their sweet twins, a boy and a girl, were born.

_Doctor says, "The baby's fine,_

_But you'll have to leave_

_'Cause his momma's fading fast." and_

_Johnny hit his knees, and there he prayed._

A doctor pulled Leo aside, pulling him from the delivery room. "The twins are fine, but, you have to leave, sir."

"Why?!" Leo demanded, "I can't leave her!"

"Sir, please calm down, I think she's leaving us."

Leo's eyes widened, he fell to his knees and began praying.

_"Take the very breath you gave me._

_Take the heart from my chest._

_I'll gladly take her place if you'll let me,_

_Make this my last request."_

Leo cried out, "Take my breath, take my heart, let me take her place! Please! This is the last thing I want! Don't let her die like this! I love her! Take my fire power, make me fully mortal! Don't let her die on me! Please! Zeus! Hera! Hades! Thanatos! Whoever controls the death of amazing girls, wives, mothers! Let her stay and take me instead!"

_"Take me out of this world._

_God please,_

_Don't take the girl."_

"Gods! Take me! Please! Don't take her! Please!" Leo cried. A doctor exited the delivery room, a sullen look on his face.

"She's gone, sir…"

Leo's face fell. "Oh no. Oh my gods. No! She can't." leo was in hysterics, she couldn't die on him, not after everything they'd been through.

"She did, say however, that she picked out a name for your son, and you were to name your daughter, something about a deal you made. She wrote his name on this piece of paper, but I can't read it." The doctor handed him a scrap of paper. Sure enough, it was a letter, written in Michelle's loopy chicken scratch.

_Dearest Leo,_

_It's time to go, sweetie._

_I'll be waiting for you._

_I'll always wait for you._

_Valdez, gods, I can't write out, or express in any way how much I'll miss you everyday._

_I'm hoping for Elysium, actually, I'm praying for it._

_Because then I KNOW you'll find me._

_Waiting at the doors._

_I've chosen the name for our boy._

_Actually, I've had it chosen since we found out our twins were a boy and a girl._

_Jasper Aiden Valdez. His first name means "treasure" Because he's MY treasure. He looks exactly like you._

_His middle name means "fire" in honor of his father's power._

_I wish you to name our daughter as you please, since that was our deal._

_I name our first boy, and you name all boys after. Just as you name first girl, and I name all girls after._

_There won't be an after this time Lee._

_Hopefully, we get a next time._

_Your loving wife,_

_Michelle Valdez_

_P.S Love IS forever, you just have to find the right person._

_P.S.S Tell Percy and Annabeth I'll say hi to Silena and Beckendorf if they're still around. Odds are they aren't by now._

It brought him to tears, but he nodded, "The boy's name is Jasper Aiden Valdez." he said quietly to the doctor. Then looked him in the eye, "Her name is Lea Lyric Valdez." he confirmed, "And I need to see my kids." he growled. He pushed past him into the delivery room. Two nurses stood there, each holding a child. Leo took his kids from them. "Thank you." he breathed. Lea reached up and grabbed his nose. She had hair like her mom, but her dad's fiery, brownish-red eyes. Jasper gripped his father's sleeve. His hair was the same as his father's. His eyes were like his mother's from birth. They looked up at their daddy with mutual looks of pleasure and curiosity. He held his two children, one in each arm. The doctor came through then, "Sir, will you be able to take care of them. I mean adoption is always an op-" Leo cut him off there.

"No." he muttered darkly, "Just because they lost their mother, DOES NOT mean I'm giving them up. They look too much like her to give them up." he practically growled.

"They need to be placed in the baby room, sir." a nurse said as she and the other nurse each took back a child.

Leo's glare returned to the doctor, "When will they be released to me?" he asked.

"In a few days, they need to be placed in a comfortable environment for a bit to adjust to the world. I assume you have a place set up for each child?"

Leo barely graced his question with a nod of response.

"Alright, you're welcome to stay here for the night, say good-bye, they've yet to cover her up."

Leo glanced over at his wife's dead body. Her skin had lost the slight brightness of life, but she'd always been as pale as death.

"Hey babe. I know we didn't really get to say good-bye and all, but…"

He stopped cleared his throat,

"I've loved you always, ya know that? Ever since we were sixteen, and you came to camp for the first time, you looked everywhere, exploring everything. You weren't specifically looking for me, but you found me."

Not a word from the girl, no, woman, in front of him, but that had been expected.

"I'll miss you so much. Until I see you again."

"Lee?"

Leo jerked his head up, Michelle, pre-pregnancy, stood in the doorway. Her long light brown hair was straight, her icy eyes boring into him, wearing that adorable smirk he'd learned as her smile. She wore a pair of shorts, her ice blue Converse sneakers, and an ice blue t-shirt. "Wha? How are you here?"

Michelle laughed, a tinkling sound, like ice and ice snapping at each other.

"Let's just say, Nico owed me a favor. Asked his dad to give me five minutes to say bye." she looked around the room, her eyes skimming over her dead body as if it wasn't there. "Where's the kids?"

"The baby room I'd suppose."

Michelle smiled, "What'd you name her?"

"Lea Lyric."

Michelle, his wife, was blushing. She looked at the ground, "That's sweet, but, you didn't have to…"

Leo smirked, "I know, I wanted to."

By now, Michelle had used up a minute of her time. They stood there in silence for another minute, just enjoying the quiet and the other's breathing.

"I want to see them." Michelle said, the smallest of tears rolling down her cheek.

"Okay, c'mon." he tried to grab her wrist, the way he used to, but his hand just passed through her. He attempted again. Then tried wiping away the small tear. He passed through her every time.

"I only have three minutes left, sweetie."

Leo nodded, "You should spend it seeing them."

"With you." she smiled, and somehow managed to grab HIS wrist. Michelle pulled him to the baby room. She glanced at each one, until she landed on the names "Jasper" and "Lea" She smiled at them, "My babies…" she said with a sigh.

Leo smiled, Michelle leaning into him, those icy eyes not leaving their kids, the motherly glint appeared, "Protect them with your life, Valdez."

"Sure. Valdez."

She looked at him, a slight laugh escapes her pale lips, "Guess I walked into that one."

Leo laughs back, "Yeah."

Michelle pressed herself to his chest, it simply felt like a breeze blowing against him.

"You were always as light as a feather." he commented, she laughed, then inhaled as she pressed her face into his shirt.

"What are you doing Chelle?" he asked curiously.

"Trying to keep the smell of you in my nose, it'll be years before I smell you again."

By now, they'd used up another two minutes.

"One minute left, babe."

"I know." she sighs, then turns back to the most beautiful babies in the world. "Make them know me."

"Always."

A loud GONG! sounded out, but it appeared only Leo and Michelle heard it.

"That's my cue." She leaned up, grazed his cheek with a peck, and faded, slowly, into thin air.

Leo breathed slowly, "Thank you." he said, looking up at the ceiling. "Thank you." the words were a breath.

* * *

><p><em>Johnny's daddy<em>

_Was takin' him fishin'_

_When he was_

_Eight years old._

Jasper and Lea were now eight, they were playing in the backyard, swinging their fishing poles and preparing for the trip with their dad. Leo strode out the back, holding the neighbor girl's hand.

"Jasper, Lea, this is Ebony, she lives next door. Her mom's letting her come fishing with us."

Lea smiled, brightening Leo's world like her mother did, "She can have my pole, and my seat in the car Daddy, Jacie's mom invited me over for the day."

Leo smiled, "That's nice of you Lea. Get going then, sweetheart."

Lea giggled and ran to the other next door neighbor's house.

Jasper was glaring at Ebony, his icy blues reminding Leo so much of his mother. "I don't want her to come."

Michelle's laughter filled Leo's head, "Just like us Lee." her voice said. Leo smiled and rolled his eyes at his son.

"C'mon now buddy, I promised her mom. Besides," he winked at his son, "She's a cutie, right?"

Jasper scrunched up his nose, "Girls ruin everything."

"What about Lea?"

"She's my sister, that's different."

Leo pat his kid's mop of curly hair, "You'll thank me later Jas."

Ebony has watched this, her caramel eyes moving back and forth, as if watching a ping-pong match, "So, am I going or not?" she asked, crossing her arms and jutting out her hip, her long, sleek and thick black hair swishing to the side in the ponytail. Even in a high pony, the girl's hair came down to the small of her back. Leo knew that pose. On any girl, it meant "This is serious business, mister." On Michelle, even when they were little, it'd meant the same thing. Leo laughed, and swooped up Jasper in one arm, then swooped up Ebony with the other.

"C'mon kiddos. Let's go fishing."

Jasper opened his mouth, in either question or in protest, but Leo spoke over him, "Son, no, you may not freeze the fish once we catch them. And Ebony is coming, end of story." Jasper slumped agains his dad's shoulder. Leo could hear Michelle laughing again, "He turned out to have your fire in the form of my ice."

"And vice versa." he reminded her silently of their daughter's icy attitude, despite her influence over fire. Leo buckled the two up. Ebony held her hand out to Jasper in Leo's rearview, "Truce?" she asks.

Jasper stares at the foreign hand, then, with a deep sigh, he sticks his own hand out and shakes her's.

"Truce!" he declares, then glares at his father in the mirror, "You. Owe. Me." he mouthed. Michelle burst out laughing in Leo's head, and it took all of Leo's willpower not to join in.

"He's so much like you." she says to Leo.

Leo silently scoffs, "And quite a bit like you." he responds.

"Touché." she laughs.

And the four of them, though only three are visible, the fourth is a memory in Leo's head, drive off for a day of fishing.


	4. Note NOW TO BE DISREGARDED!

Okay, so I wrote a really sad version, and a really empowering version of my next oneshot, but the empowering one isn't finished. Should I upload the sad one or should I wait to upload the better one? Lemme know by dropping a review.


	5. Break

Leo didn't like being the jealous type.

Leo didn't think it was possible that he was jealous of the guy, he had the love of his life, Calypso, for the gods' sakes! But here he was, watching Connor and Michelle with a scowl. They gripped each other's hands as if their life depended on the other, they're mouths were in identical, strained, flat lines, as if it was a struggle not to frown. Leo watches them trade a look, and Michelle jerks Connor's hand as they walk towards Zeus' Fist and disappear behind it.

He wants to follow them, but doesn't want to confirm his worst fear.

That Michelle had moved on, and with her twin's ex-boyfriend, for that matter.

But he does, he creeps towards the rock formation, as he gets closer he thinks he hears weeping, but he shakes his head of the thought. Why would one, or both, of them be crying?  
>He takes a deep breath and peers around the rocks, he sees them sitting on the ground, Michelle's head in Connor's chest, Connor's head bent over her's. Then, he realizes the weeping is louder, and they <em>are<em> crying. Leo is confused, and he slowly backs away. As he's stepping backwards he trips over a loose rock and falls, cursing loudly in Ancient Greek. The couple's heads pick up and look over at Leo, sprawled on the ground. Michelle stands up furiously, wiping at her frosty-teared face. "Leo Valdez!" she roars, stomping over to him and standing over him, hands on her hips. "What in the name of all the gods are you doing?" she growls slowly. Connor, fighting a smile, walks over to Michelle and places a hand on her shoulder. It looks more like a sibling move than a romantic one. Leo takes note of this and stands, looking down at Michelle. She glares up at him and her icy orbs stab through his heart. There is so much turmoil in them. Anger, sadness, bitterness, grief, they swirl 'round and 'round her eyes and she looks ready to shatter. He feels bad, like he caused all these emotions to spring up in her eyes. Connor's hand reaches out until he's wrapped his whole arm around her shoulder, and pulled her to his side. For once, the mischievous son of Hermes' brown eyes are serious. They're even _angry_, and it shocks Leo like one of Jason's lightning bolts. What was going _on_ with them?! And _where_ was Nik?!

Then it hit him, like a freaking brick wall.

Nik was _gone_. He remembered them burning a shroud for her, Michelle had made it, the usual Athena grey background with an owl, but beside the owl was a bright blue lightning bolt, marking it as Nikolet Lectric Kelley's. Granddaughter of Zeus, great-granddaughter of Khione. She was a legacy, Michelle's twin sister and best friend. The love of Connor's life.

And she was just _gone_. One distracted glance to assure herself her twin was safe and she was slashed to ribbons by a monster.

His eyes glazed over as he processed all of this, as their collective memories and feelings hit him in the gut. He wanted to double over and cry from their collective grief, and yet he stood tall, or as tall as he could. Michelle's ice orbs were still stabbing into him, and even Connor's brown eyes were menacingly angry. They both looked ready to kill him. Even _he_ wanted to kill him. He reached out his hand and grasped one of Michelle's. It was cold, it seemed to spark with anger, as if she'd rubbed socked feet on carpet and touched him. Her ice eyes held his and she didn't take his hand, nor did she remove it from his grasp. She stood there, emotions burbling, ready to spew over. He figured she had some pretty steady willpower to hold his gaze as long as she had and not break. He probably didn't help her grief. She'd lost him too.

Connor clears his throat, carefully removes Michelle's small, cold hand from Leo's, and leads her away. Back to the Athena cabin. Back to a place she could silently grieve and not be bothered. They'd all lost a sister that day. They'd lost a headstrong, stubborn fighter. And lost one of their best strategists with her.

Later, Connor tells him that that had been the first Michelle had spoken since her sister's death. Since the actual _war_ Nik had died in. Michelle hadn't spoken in months. And then Leo shows up to ruin their tear-fest and she explodes, she breaks.

He breaks her _again_. It's almost too much for Leo to handle, to think about. Calypso reaches over and squeezes his hand, giving him a warm, comforting smile. He smiles back at her, squeezes her hand back, and they continue to sit in silence for the rest of the campfire.

The campfire Michelle didn't show up to.

That night, Leo tosses and turns in bed, unable to stop thinking of how much he hurt her again. He broke her again. He made her remember everything she'd been wanting to forget. So he stands up, rubs his eyes, and walks to the Athena cabin, his feet lead by his memories. He knocks, it's all automatic, autopilot, he doesn't even remember how he got there when he wakes up outside the door the next morning. No one had heard the knock, and Leo fell over in exhaustion. Annabeth woke him up, asked him why he was there, how he'd gotten there. The only thing he could remember was needing to talk to Michelle. He wasn't sure why, or what about, but he needed to talk to her…

Annabeth gives him a pitying look, she's squatting next to him, the morning sun making her squint and bouncing off her long blond hair, he's not sure why he decides to take notice of it, but he does, and clicks a picture for his memory scrapbook.

After a while, Annabeth sighs, stands, and walks back into the cabin. She prods Michelle's side gently. Michelle turns over, her face coated in iced-over tears and her eyes bloodshot, as if she'd not slept at all. She'd heard Leo's knock, but she'd been too numb to stand and answer the door. Annabeth looks at her sadly, then says softly, "Leo wants to talk to you."

She gives a sad sigh, then slowly, ever so slowly, sits up on her lower bunk. The one above her the way Nik had left it. She manages to stand, albeit wobbly, and walks to her trunk, where she pulls a clean camp shirt and jeans from the contents, and walks to the bathroom. She changes quickly, though Annabeth isn't sure why. She thinks maybe it's because she doesn't want to look in the mirror more than necessary. She doesn't want to mistake her reflection for her twin's. Annabeth helps her out the door, Leo is still lying at the foot of the steps, and Michelle manages to walk down them herself and sit on the bottommost one. She prods Leo with her sock-covered foot.

He sits up, rubs his eyes, though the sun is behind him, and looks at her. Her face is hollow, he's sure she rarely eats, her eyes are dulling, her hair looks limp and lifeless in it's sloppy ponytail. He takes another memory picture, and again he's not sure why he does.

"Hey." he says.

She nods her head in response.

"I'm...Sorry. I forgot you lost-"

"Don't." her voice is broken and hollow. As if someone had shattered it and stole the emotions.

He nods, now, and he looks into her dulling eyes. "I really am sorry."

"If you were sorry...You wouldn't have come back as soon as you did. It still stings, Leo."

She spoke three full sentences, each on more broken and close to tears than the last. She didn't call him "Valdez" or "Fire Lord". She wasn't smiling. The only emotion on her face was in her eyes. Leo wants to take away her pain, but he has Calypso. And now he's stuck between making someone he loves feel better, and making the girl he loves hate him. But Leo takes a deep breath, leans forward, and pulls her to his chest.

She cries, and cries, and cries. Ice chips hit him with each tear, but he adjusts to the constant of it and becomes numb to the cold. They sit there for hours in the early morning light. Leo holding her, murmuring "It'll be okay." to her, over and over. Michelle just letting him hold her while she cries.

Annabeth comes out around breakfast time, she looks at them, and pries a sleeping Michelle from Leo like a little girl. Leo didn't notice how frosty his chest had become, and immediately lights up his chest to melt the ice. Annabeth takes Michelle back into the cabin, places her in her bed, and walks back out to Leo.

"I needed to apologize." His response is immediate.

"I know. But she's already broken, Leo, couldn't you have waited for a little while before coming back with Calypso and breaking her more?" Annabeth sits across from him Indian style. She sounds matter-of-fact, not scolding or sad. She didn't lose her twin and her best friend in one mistaken glance. She didn't have Michelle's pain of losing someone she loved either. Sure, she'd come pretty damn close to losing Percy a few times, but the guy was indestructible, and he'd always come back. Leo had basically died on her after breaking up with her, then came back to rub his liveliness and new girlfriend in her face. On top of losing her twin sister. She was hollow and numb and broken. Leo's eyes widen, he thinks a few horrible thoughts, then shakes them out. She _wouldn't_! Nik would be sad she'd done it, Connor would be left to deal with the grief alone, _She wouldn't_! But he stands anyway, slowly walks into the cabin, and looks at her sleeping. She looks peaceful, alive. As if she weren't broken anymore. It makes him want to smile.

And then she shrieks, piercing, at the top of her lungs. Annabeth rushes in, Will Solace, Connor, and Percy behind her. Will, Percy, and Connor walk over to her bed, and gently shake her awake. She shakes her head and her face is covered in frosty tears again, she leans over and shakes, everything shakes, she looks ready to vomit, but instead of backing away, Percy shoots towards her and holds her, rocking her. Annabeth is covering her mouth and letting her tears fall. Percy looks up at the other boys, concerned, then his sea green eyes zero in on Leo, and he wants to dash at the glimpse of venom in the son of Poseidon's eyes. Michelle is still shaking with sobs, though she's quiet about it. Percy's venomous eyes turn grimacing and he stands for Will and Connor to take his place. They murmur quiet, calming words to her and rock her back and forth between them, sharing a sad look. And then Leo realizes _why_ Will Solace is there. He's dating Michelle now. Michelle's still quaking with sobs, she won't open her eyes and her face becomes frostier and frostier. Leo then notices Michelle appearing smaller, he's pulled out the door and down the steps. and his only guess is Percy and Annabeth.

"You broke her more, Valdez." Percy's voice is gravelly.

"I know. I know, I KNOW! I screwed up big time, I should've known better, remembered about Nik. I'm a sucky person and an even sukier ex. I just plain _suck_!" Leo's just as pissed with himself as everyone else seems to be.

Annabeth places a hand on Percy's shoulder as they come to a stop. "Percy, please." she's pleading, she sounds near tears. "Don't do this."

Leo hears soft waves lapping against the shore, and realizes they're all on the dock.

"He needs to see Annabeth. He needs to see everything she feels." And with that, Leo feels himself being pulled into the ocean. His head is underwater, yet he can breathe…Leo decides Percy wasn't killing him, and had put a bubble over them.

"I'm gonna show you all of her grief, Valdez." And Leo is spun around to face Percy. The son of the sea god waves his hand in the water, and a movie-screen sized bubble forms, in watery Technicolor, Leo sees the war on camp in first person. He knows he's watching from Michelle's view. His heart beats fast, and his breathing deepens, as if he's running and can't stop.

"NIK!" the word bursts from his mouth, but sounds like Michelle's voice. The first-person screen view swivels to the girl who's going to die. She gives the screen a thumbs-up, a smile on her face. "We got this Chelley. With my fighting and your strategy, we're unstoppable." The camera nods once and they're running again. The screen fades black, then fades into another scene, still in the first-person view. The screen has an ugly beast right in front but it's dust in seconds. "NIK!" Leo's mouth screams the word, but again he's speaking as Michelle. "NIKKI WHERE ARE YOU?!" the screen glimpses electric blue eyes in the mass of monsters and demigods and Leo feels like he's rushing towards them. His heart beat is rising with each step and each thought laced with fear. He's only five feet away when it happens.

Nik glances over her shoulder, her cocky smile still well in place.

And then blood. It's spattered _everywhere_ and Leo even expects to look down and find some on himself. He doesn't.

Nik was slashed down only five feet from him and in a matter of a glance she was gone. _Dead_. Leo feels the grief, the fear, the want of _death_ immediately.

He's never wanted to lay down and die beside someone more. He feels as if his heart had been torn from him and stomped on. He breaks.

And he realizes this had been Michelle's thoughts and feelings, how she'd reacted. And Leo just wanted to curl up in a ball and die on the seafloor.

Leo's brain decides to remind him that not too many months after the burning of shrouds for all the dead campers he comes back with Calypso, along with telling him that Michelle was probably covered in her twin's blood after that. The movie isn't over though. Leo feels all of the emotions boil into one.

Complete rage.

Leo, as Michelle, starts hacking down every monster in her way, she freezes, then hacks with her knife.

Freeze. Hack. Freeze. Hack.

A constant cycle, she feels nothing, feels _unstoppable_ she no longer feels grief, just rage and a lust for vengeance. Before Leo notices it, he, as Michelle, has hacked down every monster in a twenty-foot radius.

And then Michelle collapses on her knees and cries. Loud sobs rack her body, she's screaming and cursing every deity she knows. The screen is third-person now, watching Michelle as she breaks down in the middle of a war. Then the screen is zooming towards her and Leo knows he's watching from someone's elses view.

"Will." Percy says, and then he seems to fade from existence as Leo's pulled back to the screen. Will is hunched over her, rocking her and murmuring to her, trying to quiet her sobs. He pulls a pack of gum from his pocket and makes her chew a piece, though it doesn't appear to have any effect.

"You can't mend a broken heart with gum." Will mutters as he hauls Michelle up and carries her towards an infirmary tent. He lays her on a cot and covers her, she doesn't appear to have any outward wounds, nothing is bleeding, she doesn't even have any sign of inward damage either. Besides her broken heart.

Will sighs and walks from the infirmary, his own heart cracking. Michelle was a shell now, she was broken and her insides ripped from her, like an egg.

The screen flashes to one more view.

"Connor." Percy confirms for Leo, and then Leo is living the son of Hermes memory of the day he lost Nik.

He's fighting again, slashing down baddies and creeps, and from twenty feet away, he watches from a frontal view of Nik getting sliced. Connor leans over and retches, over and over until he doesn't have anything left. He runs towards Nik's body and looks into her lifeless eyes one final time before closing them. He looks around him, alert for monsters, but Michelle has hacked them all down by now. Connor sees her crying there, but he also sees Will across the way, and decides to take care of Nik. He runs, holding her limp body one more time as he runs to the woods to bury her. When he finishes, he wipes his brow and makes his way back to the battle, where he finally revokes his own revenge.

A good while later, he, too, is in the infirmary, Will looking over him with despair. The son of Apollo shakes his head once, and Connor nods before turning to see Michelle asleep in the cot next to his. He decides sleep would be good. The screen fades to black. Then snaps back into full color as he hears shrieking coming from somewhere beside him. It's Michelle. Immediately he's on his feet and rushing to her, cradling her and rocking her, telling her it was a nightmare. She looks around, looks for Nik, then shakes her head. "Not a nightmare. Real." A quick montage of everything that happened afterwards, of Michelle's night terrors, of her not speaking anymore. A montage of Will and Connor comforting her.

And then, he's looking through Michelle's eyes as he waltzes into Camp Half-Blood, Calypso on his arm. She's running and crying, and she throws herself at Zeus' Fist and curls into the tightest of balls. She's dying all over again, cursing herself for believing he wouldn't come back, for believing if he did he wouldn't have Calypso.

She picked up a sharp rock and raised it to her wrist, she wanted to strike down, draw blood, let it flood until she was empty of it.

She wanted to _die_.

Leo covers his mouth in horror at these feelings he'd brought on her. He looks over to Percy, who nods at the screen as if to say, "_Keep watching, it's only worse from here."_ Leo returns his attention to the screen and feels like vomiting as Michelle draws the rock down her wrist, not enough to draw blood, but it leaves her skin scraped. He forces himself to keep watching. Connor finds her, takes one look at the scene and runs to her, hugging her tightly.

"Michelle...In the name of Hades you better not be-"

Michelle squirms, and reassures Connor she's alive, but he doesn't let up his grip. Instead he put his head to her shoulder and cries there, Michelle leans her head on his and lets her tears fall. They sit and cry for what feels like days, but it's only hours. Leo is watching from third-person now, for real this time. Percy and Annabeth come by, laughing and holding hands, but stop in their tracks when they see Michelle and Connor there. Annabeth turns to Percy and tells him to get Will and Chiron. Percy nods, and with a sad glance at the two crying on Zeus' Fist, he dashes to find the two healers. Annabeth runs to them and hugs them, petting their hair and letting them cry on her. Percy returns minutes later, Chiron and Will on his heels. Will runs to Michelle and takes her from Annabeth, though neither girl says anything of it. Percy runs to Annabeth and holds her, and Chiron makes his way to Connor.

"No healer in this world could cure a broken heart. Not even Asclepius."

Michelle is bawling into Will's chest through all of this, and Leo feels forced to sit and watch. The screen fades to black once more, and Leo thinks he's seen all he needs to, but the screen is in color seconds later.

He's in one of Michelle's night terrors.

It starts off innocently enough, just walking through Camp Half-Blood, through the strawberry fields. The air smells sweet and the satyrs are playing soft melodies for the strawberries to is swaying slightly to the music, like the _gemini_ when Piper sang to them back in Greece. He hears a voice in his head, like a god or goddess speaking to him. "You shall lose all you love in this war. You shall not find another to replace them. They will all abandon you. Join me and I will spare them." It's the last line that makes Leo realize that Queen of the Potty Sludge was corrupting Michelle's dreams.

"DON'T LISTEN TO HER!" he screams at the bubble screen. But it's a memory, a dream, Leo has no say in what happens next. Michelle stands tall, her eyes boring icicles into the earth. "No, Earth Mother. I will not join you. I will lose _everyone_ before I give into you. I will lose the whole world before I lose myself to you." And with that, Michelle shoots icicles into the ground and Gaea's screams are heard all around. The next scene is a montage of Nik's death and Leo's return. Michelle's heart feels darker and darker, but she bites her tongue, she will not say out loud how badly she wishes to surrender to Gaea to prevent more pain. She keeps herself silent for fear she _will_.

The movie fades to black for the final time.

Percy looks over at Leo at shakes his head. "See how screwed up this is? Michelle used to never wish harm on anyone who'd done nothing to her, and now she's told Gaea that she'll only surrender when she's the final person on earth. Gaea won't cease to stop her heart break until Michelle agrees. And Gaea knows how close she is to breaking for good. Michelle's strong, sure, but she was stronger when you or Nik were beside her. Now, she can't get strength from anyone, Reyna even tried to help, but it only lasted a few minutes when Reyna gave her a few _hours_." Percy takes a deep breath. "She's even told me she might as well be dead." Percy raises them back to the surface, and Annabeth is relieved when they return. Leo has a feeling in his gut and takes off for the Athena cabin. Percy and Annabeth share a confused look before taking off after him.

He bursts through the door right as her knife makes contact.

"Michelle, NO!" Leo dives for her and manages to rip the knife from her hands without hurting her further.

Michelle doesn't make a sound, just watches the blood burble. The damage is done.

Annabeth runs out the door for Chiron, Percy runs to Michelle's bed and starts trying to stop the blood by ripping her sheets and tying it like a tourniquet.

While Leo just stands there, slack-jawed and holding the suicide weapon.

Chiron rushes in and attends to Michelle before slinging her on his back and running her to the infirmary. Chiron nods at Annabeth, thanking her, and takes off as fast as his horse legs will carry him.

Percy gently takes the weapon from Leo, then brings water from the faucet in the bathroom to clean it of fingerprints and blood. He returns the water, then puts the weapon under all of Michelle's things in her trunk.

"_Break! Away from everybody! Break! Away from everything! If you can't stand, the way this place is, take yourself, to higher places!"_ The chorus sits on repeat in her head. It's the only song Michelle allows in. The last good memory with Nik.

"_Don't ever turn to drugs like he did, Chelley."_

_Michelle rolled her eyes at that and smiled at her twin, "Wouldn't dream of it, Nikki."_

_Nik nodded and put the song on repeat "BREAK!"_

"_AWAY FROM EVERYBODY!" Michelle answered with the next line._

"_BREAK!"_

"_AWAY FROM EVERYTHING!"_

"_IF YOU CAN'T STAND, THE WAY THIS PLACE IS!"_

"_TAKE, YOURSELF, TO HIGHER PLACES!"_

"_AT NIGHT I FEEL LIKE A VAMPIRE!"_

"_I JUST CAN'T GIVE YOU UP!"_

"_TONIGHT WE BREAK AWAY!"_

_They were laughing and smiling, despite the fact that right outside camp were enemies set on destroying them. Nik had always been good at making Michelle forget about those kinds of things._

"_Break_…" Michelle starts, her voice wobbly and gravelly. "_Away from everybody. Break...Away from everything. If you can't stand_-" she sobs, then continues, "_The way...this place is…_" She's crying now, standing in the amphitheatre and crying as she sings the chorus to the last happy memory with her twin sister. "_Take, yourself, to better places_." she changes the lyric at the last second. It feels right, necessary. Nik wasn't high, or _higher_. She was in Elysium. She would wait to be reborn with her twin sister.

Michelle was sure of it.

Connor finds her there hours later, she's just staring at the ground numbly, how she'd been since Nik had died. Connor walks over and holds her, and Michelle cries into his chest.

Leo's passing by the amphitheatre, showing Calypso around some more. He sees her crying, sees her clinging to Connor like the last string keeping her here. He looks at Calypso, who nods and walks over with him.

Michelle's eyelashes are sprinkled with frosted tears, she wipes at them furiously and glares at Leo. Calypso just stares at her, and then she holds the daughter of Athena.

"I know your pain."

"Hmph." is Michelle's reply.

"I do. I understand what it is like to fear never seeing your loved ones again. But you _will_ see your sister again. I can feel it."

"Humph." Michelle replies again, turning her head away from the island goddess.

"I'm sorry. About your sister. And about Leo. I did not know how much you cared for him."

"Seems like no one really did." Michelle says. Connor's head pops up at that, she'd spoken words again!

"Leo's still a jerk. I don't hold anything against you. Except maybe you cursing Annabeth and Percy, but that's about it. _Leo_ is the one I have a problem with. He lead me to believe he loved me. He was just biding his time for you."

"I'm deeply sorry you felt lead on. I didn't intend to hurt anyone else in all of this."

"I suppose I can't exactly blame _you_. You had no idea I was waiting for him here at home."

"I didn't know you were either." Leo speaks now, but Michelle had been expecting it.

The icy-eyed girl glares icicles into him, "You should've. I told you how I felt and you ignored me to find your goddess. Gods, Leo! You're so...SO THICK!"

And with a final flash of ice cold, Michelle is gone.

Calypso gives Leo a sad look, as if to confirm that he'd screwed up and broken Michelle more.

Michelle wasn't interested in life anymore. She started talking to Nico about death, asking him questions.

She thought it sounded a lot better than her life. And if she could convince the judges to give her Elysium…

She takes the blade of her dagger that had been buried at the very bottom of her trunk and scrapes down her arm.

She will greet death with grace.

"She's lived quite a heroic life."

"But she took her own life."

This is what Michelle hears next. She doesn't remember the ride across the Styx, just her judgment.

"She's been tempted to join Gaea. She prevailed."

"Along with her losing those most dear to her. The grief was too much for her delicate, icy heart to handle."

"That's correct. She is ice, not stone."

So far it seemed that two of the three heads deciding her afterlife fate were on her side.

"She died to see her twin sister again."

"The third, the one who thought she didn't deserve Elysium, strikes the gavel.

"Elysium."

On the upper world, the camp is grieving.

Leo holds Calypso as she cries. She'd actually been interested in learning more about Michelle.

Connor is curled up beside her burning shroud, but Leo influenced the flames away from the son of Hermes. He didn't need scars on the outside as well.

Annabeth stared into the flames as if they held the answer to her billion questions. Percy stood beside her, stiff and seemingly emotionless, but the Long Island Sound nearby was in turmoil. Either it was Percy's doing, or Poseidon was grieving for the loss of the legacy with the others. The sky was overcast. Zeus seemed to be mourning for his granddaughter, no matter how little he may have cared while she was alive.

But time went on.

Michelle and Nik met up again in Elysium, and while Nik was disappointed in her twin at first, she got over it, and they were reborn as twins once more. This time bearing the names Nicole and Ellie. Though they still go by Nik and Chelle.

Percy and Annabeth wed on their birthday, so as to remember only the happiest memories of them.

Leo and Calypso live their happily ever after, the gods even allow Calypso to die with him, and revoke her goddess-ness. They grow up next to each other and fall in love in their next lives.

Will mourns for Michelle for a good long while, but he, too, moves on, falls in love again. He gets a happily ever after, too.

Connor manages to last through life until his brother's wedding. Then he dies of a broken heart. All thanks to Aphrodite. He's reborn a few short years before Nik, and they fall in love in their next life.

Ultimately, everyone gets another chance. Everyone gets a better ending.

In the end, everyone lives happily ever after.

Some just had to break first.

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><p><strong>My Apollo-gies if you cried, I hope my cheesiness down here makes up for it. I just want to remind everyone I don't own anyone but Michelle and Nik.<strong>

**Essentially this was my way of coping with the final chapter of BoO AKA the entire reason I'm dead inside. So...yeah.  
>The happier one is still in the works and I have another half-finished sad one.<strong>


	6. Note the Second

**I just wanted to address a few things about my stories here.**

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><p><strong>For, "Sleep is a Dangerous Thing":<strong>

**This was actually one of the two happy ending LeChelle stories I have. The other is on Deviantart, and i will get that here after "Survivor". ANd with permission I may get to put a story I requested in this thing. So this one is supposed to be proof I don't just write sad stuff. I just listen to a lot of sad songs. Speaking of, at the bottom of this I'll have a question for you all. XD**

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><p><strong>For, "Lips of an Angel":<strong>

**This was the first sad one I ever wrote and I loved it more every time I read it. I really enjoyed how I ended it so bittersweetly with a twinge of hope. I'm usually all or nothing with my endings. XD I'm also really proud because I didn't do too bad with Calypso. I just had her react the way I would. XD the Nik and Connor thing was added because I figured Nik would be there for her twin in times like that and then I figured it was only fair to give her a love intrest of her own. SO BAM! ConNik is born! XD I'm thinking of starting some fic for them, which will contain BOO spoilers BECAUSE I FINALLY FINISHED IT GODS! DX But that'll probably be in here sooooo...**

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><p><strong>For, "Don't Take the Girl":<strong>

**This was the second sad one I wrote, and I WROTE IT ON VALENTINE'S WEEKEND OF ALL THINGS! *facewall* But I was lonely and my friend was lonely and I showed her this song and it made me want to write it and she cried when she read it even though she didn't understand and that was a really beautiful weekend. XD This one made me realize how I was dead-set determined to overthrow the typicalness of OC' up in this fandom. Yeah, Michelle and Nik are kinda Mary-Sue-ish but I'm not totally professional at this yet. XD I wanted to prove that you can have a beautiful love story that ends sadly WITH OCS AND ACTUAL CHARACTERS AS A SHIP and not have it be all candy and rainbows and Mary-Sue-ish.**

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><p><strong>For, "Break":<strong>

**This really started as a venting thing so I could healthily move on and grieve and all sorts of things and now I'm writing two other alternate endings. Granted one was before I finished the book and only knew the first line of that last chapter and the thing with Calypso for those of you who haven't read it. XD**

**But now it's this big kind of thing that I'm thinking over and it's because of the special guest Karen! ^.^ I couldn't thank you properly because you were a guest but I totally love what you took from my story and so I'm going to quote your review here and tell you what I think about the things you brought up. Hope you don't mind. XD**

**"An excellent way to put suicide in its place without completely justifiying it, because suicide is wrong. But, Leo was kind of OOC and rather cruel. Michelle lost her sister, and THEN he decides to go save Calypso? He was literally asking for Michelle to take her own life."**

**Firstly, I want to thank you for the first sentence. I take it as a compliment because I didn't even mean to make it seem like that. I've just had a lot of stressful friendships and some personal experiences with the subject of suicide and cutting and have never found either an option, but quickly realized I had feelings and friends that didn't always seem all candy and rainbows. So I talked to my friends and kept them from being stupid and prayed for them and for myself to get through all this teen angst-y kind of crap. (I didn't mean that to seem like it's just dramatics, it's very real and if you need to talk to someone please come to me, I'll hug you and listen and give you blue cookies, okay? But my friends and I ARE teens with lots of angst and emotions and that's what I chalk my insanity up to most days.) But what I wanted to point out was-SPOILERS-Leo went crashing in a fiery ball of death with some help from Octavian WHILE Nik, Michelle, Will, and Connor were battling on the ground. TECHNICALLY Leo wasn't there and didn't know until he got back with Calypso. But he DOES remember hearing something about Nik dying while on his trip with Calypso. I really tried to keep everybody more IC here, but I can see where you'd find him being OOC. My timeline is really confused right now so don't freak if I change a thing or two in future fics to try and keep my timeline straight with the canon.**

**I also wanted to state that the Calypso scene was DEFINITELY necessary. I wanted to show that I (and by that I do mean myself along with my OC Michelle) held no grudges against her for Leo. She didn't know he had someone back home. LEO didn't even really acknowledge he did until Michelle snapped at him about it. I wanted to show that I don't hate CaLeo with such a fiery passion. While I will always ship LeChelle more, I accept the fate of my canon. I also wanted to show I don't just hate Calypso. I really kind of just hated the relationship. Because Leo came to me lonely when I was lonely and it was a perfect fit until HOH. And by the time we get to the CaLeo chapters, we have a reason to Calypso besides the Leo thing. The whole cursing Percy thing too!**

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><p><strong>But there ARE a few things I wanted to tell you guys.<strong>

**I'LL BE DOING REQUESTS!**

**Whether for your own OCs (if you wish I'll have a form to fill out for that with all the info I'll need for your request and the OC), OR for LeChelle and ConNik. I will not do any canon couples because that's not what this is for. If you want to request a canon ship you can, it just won't be here. XD**

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><p><strong>The form for any kind of request is here"<strong>

**Ship:**

**Title (optional, if you don't choose one, I'll think of something. XD):**

**Plot (This can be as long as you want, just not twenty pages kay? I DO need a little breathing room for characterness):**

**How much fluff? (I don't do smut, lime, lemon, that stuff, sorry):**

**The OCs one is the above with a description of each OC in the story. If you want an OCXOC, please write it yourself, I'd be honored to help you if you wish. This is for the canon characters and OCs, so I'm sorry.**

**This also extends to songfics. I may not do a play-by-play for the song, but I may choose a very fitting quote (or multiple quotes) for the ship. This extends to all of the requests, CCXOC, canon pairing, non-canon pairing but both canon characters, LeChelle, ConNik and anything else you can dream up.**

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><p><strong>A warning for the next oneshot. It's the empowering version of "Break". With Destiny's Cheld's "Survivor" as an inspiration, this will be Willelle. AKA Will and Michelle. My apologies if you were looking forward to LeChelle getting a happy BOO ending. "Save" is half-finished and I can't find a way to finish it so I may just post the half-assed thing here. It'll be more sad LeChelle so get the tissues if you find it necessary.<strong>

**BUT AFTER THAT I WILL START ON A NEW, somewhat, HAPPIER LECHELLE BASED OFF THE SONG "CLARITY"! So that's up after "Survivor" and "Save".**

**This was a really long note but thank you all for reviewing and reading and reading this whole thing, you guys really are the best. ^.^**

**MUCH LOVE AND STAY STRONG,**

**Chelle**


	7. Survivor

**ENJOY! ^.^**

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><p><em>"I'm wishin' you the best,<em>

_(The best)  
>pray that you are blessed,<br>(Whoo whoo)  
>bring much success, no stress, and lots of happiness.<br>(I'm better than that)  
>I'm not gon' blast you on the radio.<br>(I'm better than that)  
>I'm not gon' lie on you and your family.<br>(I'm better than that)  
>I'm not gon' hate on you in the magazines.<br>('m better than that)_

_I'm not gon' compromise my Christianity._  
><em>(I'm better than that)<em>  
><em>You know I'm not gon' diss you on the Internet,<em>  
><em>'cause my Mama taught me better than that."<em>

_~Survivor, Destiny's Child_

* * *

><p>Leo didn't like being the jealous type.<p>

He narrows his eyes at the smile on her face, her hand gripped in Will's as they walk, swinging their hands back and forth lazily. They're heading toward the Sound. Leo watches them from his place on Half-Blood Hill, where he's about to make his big entrance with Calypso. Michelle's hair is shorter, jagged, and dyed, it's all bleached blond and bright pink, like she's trying to be someone she isn't.

Leo strides into camp with his head high, his smirk on his face and his Sunshine on his arm.

He tries to not look for her eyes in the kaleidoscope of colored ones that turn to him, tries not to look and see if she turned around.

* * *

><p>"<em>Now that you're outta my life, I'm so much better. You thought that I'd be weak without you, but I'm stronger!"<em>

* * *

><p>Michelle looks over her shoulder and sees him, her breath catches a little, but she shakes her head, and turns to Will, laying her head on his shoulder. "He's back." she tells him softly.<p>

Will looks over his shoulder at the Boy on Fire, "Yeah. And he's got-"

"Please. Don't say her name, okay?"

Will nods and smiles down at smiles up at him and they continue their walk to the beach.

"Do you ever think about being with him again?"

"Do I ever think of _dating_ him again?"

"Yeah." Will nods and looks at their intertwined fingers. They were sitting on the beach, heads leaned together, staring at their hands or the beautiful expanse of water before them.

"Not really. I started thinking about what we were like as a couple. We didn't really work. I tried to trust him. But then he'd turn around and show me why I shouldn't, and then it repeated. Over and over. Trust is vital in a relationship..."

"I know, sweetheart."

She smacks his arm, her mouth in a smile, her eyes laughing, "Don't call me sweetheart." she lays her head back on his shoulder. "Thanks, though." she mutters to him.

"'Course, Chelle." Will lays his head on hers.

* * *

><p>"<em>You thought I'd be poor without you, but I'm richer. You thought that I'd be sad without you I laugh harder."<em>

* * *

><p>It's at the campfire that night when Leo approaches her. Will, at her side, stands in front of her, crossing his arms.<p>

"Can I _help_ you, Valdez?" he sneers.

Michelle stands, placing a calming hand on his arm. "Will. It's okay."

Will nods and sits down again, but not before pecking her cheek and sending Leo another glare.

"Can I help you, Leo?" she asks, her tone icy and harsh. What was with her sudden hostility?

Then he remembers.

He left her.

She waves a hand in his face, "Earth to Leo Valdez...Hurry with the question already, your girlfriend's getting antsy."

Leo snaps his eyes back to hers, "Right, uh, how've you been?"

"I was _plenty_ better before you waltzed back in here."

"Yeah, sorry about that." he scratches the back of his head.

"You thought I'd be worse for the wear, right? You could waltz in here, smugly knowing you broke my heart and I'm still broke up over it, you'd have a glorious homecoming...Your friends would welcome you home with open arms. You'd have a new girlfriend. Life would be the pinnacle of perfection for you. But I moved on, got over you, and got happy. Now, you can't stand it."

Leo looks her in the eyes, expecting her face to seemingly melt, her ice-cold eyes to soften, but she stays steely and guarded, her eyes are still ice, and he's almost worried for his health.

Will stands and puts an arm around her shoulders, and she turns her face to him, her whole expression softening, lightening, she smiles at him.

"Later, Valdez."

"Chelle!" he calls after her, but she's gone with Will in the blink of an eye.

Calypso comes over, wraps her hands around his arm, "C'mon Leo. I wanna see the rest of the camp!" her eyes light up, her cinnamon-toast colored hair in a braid down her back.

Leo smiles down at her, "Yeah, okay, c'mon."

* * *

><p>"<em>You thought I wouldn't grow without you, now I'm wiser. Thought that I'd be helpless without you, but I'm smarter."<em>

* * *

><p>The next morning, Leo finds her on the docks. She loved watching the sunrise.<p>

"Surprised your boyfriend isn't here." he tells her, approaching the end of the dock. He stands over her, arms folded.

She rolls her eyes without taking them off the rising sun. "I let him sleep in today. Besides, it's kinda murky anyway."

"But you woke up to see it anyway?"

"Natural habit nowadays." she informs him, her voice not holding a single emotion.

"I wish you wouldn't be all robotic with me." he gently sets himself down on the edge next to her.

"I thought you understood them better." she deadpans, her eyes still haven't left the brightening sky.

"I don't understand people when they try to be machines, it just means there's more going on that confuses me." he tells her, his own eyes looking to the sunrise.

"Yeah, well, you _kinda_ _left me alone_. Let us all think _you were dead_, and then you magically show up months later with your new girlfriend. You can't blame me for moving on."

"Yeah, well, you can't blame me for choosing her."

"Who even said I did?!" she asks indignantly, her eyes finally leaving the murky-colored sky and looking into his red-brown orbs. SHe shakes her head, "Nevermind. You probably jumped to conclusions." she mutters under her breath, "_Baka_."

"What was that last part?

"_Baka_. It's Japanese, good luck figuring out it's meaning." she rolls her eyes and focuses on the rising sun once more.

"I'm not an _idiot_," he sneers, "I just don't know why you're so pissy."

"I'm _not_ pissy. You're jealous because I moved on and you expected to find me broken. We've been over this, so just admit it to yourself. You're jealous because I'm better with Will than I was with you, Leo." And with her typical dramatic flair, she stands, swiftly turns, and walks back up the dock, back to camp.

* * *

><p>"<em>You thought I'd be stressed without you, but I'm Chillin'. Thought I wouldn't sell without, sold nine million."<em>

* * *

><p>She's in the same position later that day, watching the sunset now, when he approaches her again.<p>

"I seriously think you should dump him. Won't even watch his dad finish up for the night."

"Will had to take care of capture the flag injuries, he'll be along shortly." Her tone is clipped, annoyed, but her face is serene and her calm eyes don't freeze up or leave the sky again.

"Why are you always watching the sun?"

"The colors are too beautiful to pass up. You'd understand that if you had a single sensitive bone in your body."

"I'm _plenty_ sensitive." he informs her, sitting beside her on the dock again.

"_So_ sensitive you left me for a goddess."

"I didn't know-"

"Of course you didn't, you were too busy disappearing on all your friends and faking your death to be with your 'Sunshine'." you can hear the air quotes in the way she sneers Calypso's nickname.

"He bothering you, sweets?" a voice speaks up behind them. Michelle shoots Leo a smirk before standing and walking to Will's side, taking his hand. "Nah, he's just being typical Leo, a pest."

Will nods and smiles down at her, placing a comforting kiss on the top of her head, "Okay, if you say so."

Leo looks at Will, annoyed at first, (What kind of nickname was '_Sweets_'?) then morphing his face into a darker emotion, something Michelle hadn't seen before. "Chelle, tell your boy you wanna finish watching the sunset with me."

"Well, _technically_ _**I**_ was watching the sunset, _you_ came and sat next to _me_." Michelle corrects.

"And you can't boss her around anymore than I can." Will smiles down at her, sliding his arm around her shoulder and hugging her to his side.

Michelle rolls her eyes and sneers up at him, "Which means you can't boss me around at _all_." she tells Leo, her icy blues not leaving the son of Apollo's bright blues.

"_I'm wishin you the best, pray that you are blessed. With much success, no stress and lots of happiness."_ Michelle sings the lines clearly, cooly, more in-your-face-I'm-better-now than Leo was expecting. The Boy on Fire clenched his teeth, stood and walked up the dock a bit to face-off with the two, responding with his own line.

"_You talk too much, you never shut up_-"

Will cuts this off with "_Sorry I stole your_ girlfriend.", thenjumped in when the other two stayed silent. "Don't have a sing fight, guys. It's unneccessary. C'mon Shell, let's take you back to your cabin." Michelle smiles from her place under his arm and nods, turning with him and walking back to Cabin Eleven.

Leo rolls his eyes, wishing that he'd come home sooner, maybe stopped her from falling for Will Solace, stopped her from dying her hair blond and pink, stopped her from giving up on them.

Calypso smiles as she comes towards him, "I was looking all over for you. What are you doing the the dock?"

Leo puts his arm over her shoulders and kisses her temple, "Watching the sun set." He mentally adds the "_on Michelle and me"_ as he turns his girlfriend and himself around to watch the setting sun burn into reds, pinks and purples. "_Guess it's over now. She'll be happy, I'm sure."_

* * *

><p><strong>Should I post "Save"?<strong>

**Also, sorry it's shorter than the last one, I was trying to end it.**

**I'm going to do "Clarity" here soon, and post "Save" if you guys want me to.**

**Then I'll be posting spiesareawesome's request of Loyall. (May change the title to "Pay to See You Smile" because "Try Again" doesn't really make sense to me...O_O)**

**Then the requested "Complicated" by Eliz-Goddess of Fish! ^.^**

**AND THEN THE FIRST CONNIK-CENTRIC FIC TITLED "Stealing Cinderella"! WOOOO!**

**I'll try and have Clarity up later today, then work on the Loyall request, but I MAY change it to Leo trying to get Royall to go out with him because I have a really good idea! :D If you want me to NOT change any of these things I won't just lemme know! ^.^**

**Most of my stories are based off music but I love songfics sooooo...**

**PEACE, LOVE, AND HAPPINESS,**

**-Chelle**


	8. Clarity-Slight Lime Warning

"_High dive into frozen waves where the past comes back to life.. Fight fear for the selfish pain it was worth it every time."_

This was it, he was diving into her icy blues, their history suddenly alive all around him, his memories of them clear and crisp, in total HD. He felt fear rise in his throat, he wanted to puke, but he shoved the feeling down, because then she'd feel guilty too and that was selfish of him. He leaned in and kissed her, and the whole world just melted into background noise and nameless colored blurs because she was worth it and perfect and deserved it.

"_Hold still right before we crash, 'cause we both know how this ends. A clock ticks till it breaks your glass and I drown in you again."_

She didn't move to lean closer to him, nor he to her, because they were about to crash and they both knew how it would end. She hears the ticking of a clock, which chimes midnight, and she broke her stillness, melting into him and drowning in him as they fell to the bed in the rush of passion. They were crashing again, and they both knew all that they would deny in the morning.

"Leo." she mutters, he kisses her forehead gently.

"Michelle." he groans as she presses to him.

* * *

><p>"'<em>Cause you are, the piece of me, I wish I didn't need. Chasing, relentlessly. Still fight and I don't know why."<em>

They lay next to each other silently in the pure darkness, Michelle breaks the silence.

"I wish I didn't need you."

"I wish I didn't need you, either." Leo comments back, his voice sleepy and his eyes shut.

"Why do we keep fighting for and chasing each other?" the twenty-something woman asks, "We should've made up our minds by now."

"I don't know." the twenty-something man responds, suddenly turning to her and looking into the icy orbs he loves so much. Her eyes gaze into his fiery red-brown orbs in return, opening her mouth to respond, but he seizes it and presses his mouth to hers.

"_If our love, is tragedy why are you my remedy? If our love's insanity why are you my clarity?"_

She yanks away not nearly as quickly as she would've liked, her reflexes losing to her heart, it seemed. "This is such a tragedy!" she exclaims, throwing herself away from him and staring at the ceiling. "Forget _Romeo & Juliet_, we're the **real **tragedy! And insane! Don't forget how insane we are!"

Leo sighs and throws himself on his back, gazing at the ceiling himself, "And somehow, you're my remedy. You fix _everything_. Even when we don't want to do this, you fix _that_ with the bat of an eyelash, babe. And insanity? Princess, you make everything clearer. You're my clarity, babydoll."

* * *

><p>"<em>Walk on through a red parade and refuse to make amends. It cuts deep through our ground and makes us forget all common sense.."<em>

They lay awake, the clock chimes two in the morning, Michelle is thinking over what he said about being his "clarity"...

"What does that even _mean_?" she asks, her half-lidded eyes still gazing at the ceiling.

"Clarity-the quality of coherence and intelligibility. It means you're super smart and make sense."

She whips the pillow from behind her head and smacks him in the face with it before nestling her head in it again, "I know what it means, Sozen." she sneers, "I wanted to know what _you_ meant by that."

Leo rubs his face after being beaten with the pillow and sighs again, turning to her once more, "I meant that you make everything make sense, you make everything smart-sounding."

Michelle still won't look at him, refuses to forgive him for those years long ago, and it drives him crazy. He pulls her to him, kissing her deeply, pulling her as close to his body as the sheet she's wrapped around herself with allow him.

She loses her common sense for a moment, melting into him again and deepening the kiss as she pulls herself closer to him.

"_Don't speak as I try to leave, 'cause we both know what we'll choose. If you pull, then I'll push too deep, and I'll fall right back to you."_

Michelle breaks away, her common sense finally awakening, she rolls over and pulls herself from the bed, dressing quickly, and starting for the door.

Leo watches her, her franticity in leaving, and calls to her as she reaches for the doorknob, "Hang on!" He bolts up in the bed, his eyes meeting hers immediately.

She turns, icy eyes almost furious, "Don't stop me from leaving, you know what happens when you do. When either of us do! Trying to stop the other only makes things worse!"

He hops from the bed, having put on his boxers earlier and walks to her side, taking her hand. "I don't _want_ this to stop! I want you! I _need _you! For the love of God, Ice Queen! I love you!" He pulls her to him and kisses her deeply.

She kisses him back, wrapping her arms up and around his neck, digging her fingers into his curls and yanking him closer. They pull apart, gasping for air, and she allows her eyes to meet his.

"I love you too."

* * *

><p><strong>So, it's kinda short...SORRY! ^.^ I think I won't post "Save" unless someone asks, so tomorrow I will begin spiesareawesome's request and try to have that posted, then work on Eliz's. ^.^<strong>

**I also apologize that it's kinda lime-y, but it was all I could think to do for this song. Also, it's AU so no gods or Calypso or quests. The thing "all those years ago" was him breaking up with her for an AU Calypso counterpart, but that's only slightly mentioned. :D**

**Drop a review and lemme know if this was too much or if you want more stuff like this or what.**

**AND IF I GET TO FINISH ELIZ'S TOMORROW ALONG WITH THE LOYALL I MIGHT START ON THE CONNIK! *squeals* Hope to post more tomorrow, faithful readers. ^.^**

**-Chelle**


	9. Pay to See You Smile-Loyall

**I loved writing this, spies, I hope I did Royall justice. Also, their ship name is gorgeous! ^.^ ENJOY! Next up will be "Complicated" a LeChelle songfic requested by Eliz-Goddess of Fish. The title was partially inspired by "Mona Lisa" by Panic! At the Disco, I suggest you listen to it. It's not neessary to understand the story, because it actually has nothing to do with this, but it's a good song nonetheless. xD**

* * *

><p>Leo Valdez had never met a bigger challenge.<p>

Sure, he could rebuild a metal dragon _inside a ship_, and _build said ship_. But he couldn't make Royall smile.

Not even a little bit.

He loves a challenge, though, and it was his personal mission to get her to smile at him _once_ this summer.

So he starts with the typical things, telling jokes and smirking at her, teasing her and prodding her. But she doesn't crack. At ALL.

He thinks that maybe it's the whole "daughter of Hecate" thing, or maybe because she's not very social…

One day, he approaches her in the woods, she's got the hood of her blue cloak up, and she's summoning some sort of energy as she aims at a target. The energy grows, becoming blacker as it does so and hits a tree, enveloping it in blackness before reversing and the energy coming back to her hands.

"Gods! Why can't I get this right?!" she questions aloud, and Leo smirks, walking towards her with his arms crossed.

"Maybe because the dryads don't want you killing their trees?"

Royall rolls her eyes, putting down her hood and revealing her short, purple hair. "Can I help you, Valdez?"

"You wanna answer my question?"

"I cleared it with them previous to this. The tree is not a reincarnation, nor a dryad. So now, if you'll excuse me…" she turns from him and begins to try the spell again, but he stops her.

"I wish you'd smile at me for once."

"I am not the type to smile, Leo." she says, clipping off the end of each word.

"C'mon Roy, one smile and you can go back to training your magic."

Royall turns on her heel and glares into his eyes, "Firstly, my name is not 'Roy'," at this she sneers, "And secondly, I will not smile to simply _please_ you."

"Royall, c'mon...You know you wanna smile. I mean, I'm gorgeous."

Royall snorts and turns from him as quickly as she'd turned towards him, "Thirdly, I don't like people who are full of themselves."

Leo rolls his eyes, then walks next to her and put an arm around her, he really had to work hard for this smile. "Maybe this'll make you smile." He presses his mouth firmly to hers.

Royall is caught by surprise, and is between kissing him back and pulling away when she does both. For a split second, she allows her mouth to press against Leo's, then she whips back and slaps him across the face.

Leo, surprised by her smack, falls to his knees and holds his cheek. "Ow…" he mutters.

Royall rolls her eyes. _Wimp, I didn't hit you __**that**_ _hard_. She's fighting a smile at his pain, because she doesn't want to give in, but she gives a small laugh, that soon becomes uproarious and she, too, falls to her knees, still laughing.

Leo looks up at her, and smiles through his pain, because she's not just smiling, she's _laughing_. Sure, it hurt _big time_ to make it happen, but Royall was laughing. _At him_. Once the pain in his cheek subsides, he helps her stand since her laughter has stopped. She's gone back to a somewhat blank face, her purple eyes the only indicator she's still laughing inside.

Leo leans to kiss her again, and this time, she meets him half-way.

Then slaps him again. Though it was lighter than the previous one, she had enjoyed laughing at his pain, and wanted to have it happen again.

"So, does this mean you'll go out with me?" Leo asks, on his knees again and holding his other cheek.

Royall smirks and shrugs, "Sure, you're nice for a laugh."

Leo looks into her laughing irises and smiles at her, which she reciprocates. He'd pay _anything_ to keep that smile on her face.

Even his own. Face, that is.


	10. Complicated

"_I like, you the way you are._

_When we're drivin' in your car._

_And you're, talkin' to me one on one, but you become… _

_Somebody else 'round everyone else._

_You're watchin' your back, like you can't relax._

_You tryin' to be cool, you look like a fool to me!_

_Tell me!_

_Why'd you have to go and make things so complicated?_

_I see the way you're, actin' like you're somebody else gets me frustrated!_

_Life's like this you, you fall and you crawl and you break, and you take what you get, and you turn it into… _

_Honestly, you promised me, I'm never gonna find you fake it._

_No no no."_

-"Complicated", Avril Lavigne

* * *

><p>Michelle rolls her eyes.<p>

She was leaning against a wall, waiting for her boyfriend to finish up his conversation with his friends, Percy (who names their kid _Percy_?!) and Jason. He was going _on and on_ about his latest metal shop project. The same metal shop project he'd been working on day and night for the past week. The same metal shop project he'd forgotten their two-year anniversary for. The same project that kept her up all night. It was _infuriating_! He'd act like it was no big when explaining it to his friends, but it was _all_ he could talk about when they were alone. She mentally marks it down in the "Friends" column. Recently, Leo had been acting differently around his friends than he would with her.

Like the week before, when he'd promised her they'd do something romantic for their anniversary. Then, when it came around, he'd spent the _entire day_ in his workshop and hadn't even come out for lunch or dinner.

And now, to "make up for it" he'd taken her to this crappy dance club so he could meet up with his friends and tell them all about his new project.

Percy and his girlfriend were fighting, but he and Annabeth would be back together by the next morning. Jason and Piper weren't really into this scene either, but it wasn't the worst kind of dance club Michelle had been dragged to. She rolls her eyes again and walks over to them. She smiles sweetly and places a gentle hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, squeezing as hard as she can, keeping her smile in place.

"Leo, sweetie, I'm ready to go." she tells him, her voice sugary-sweet. Leo's reddish-brown eyes swivel to her and it takes all her willpower to try and not melt under his hot gaze and gorgeous smirk.

"In a sec, babe." he tells her, and Michelle rolls her eyes. Again. She's getting a headache.

"Babe, you said that half an hour ago." she reminds him, using every bit of her willpower to not scream at him here.

"Okay, Princess, let me finish up with the guys here." he kisses the top of her head before turning back to Percy and Jason.

Michelle rolls her eyes and grabs Leo's arm mid-sentence before pulling him out of the club. "You are _such_ an idiot." she tells him, aggravated, pulling them off to the car.

Leo slides into the driver's seat and starts up the car, "I know it wasn't what you wanted, but the boys needed me."

"If the "boys" needed you," his girlfriend starts, using air quotes around "boys", "Then where was Frank?"

"Frank doesn't do the club scene."

"And _I_ do?!" Michelle asks him, incredulous. "You know I'd _much_ rather be at home. Reading a book or watching a movie or just sleeping next to you, you idiot." she smacks him upside the head, albeit much more gently than she really wanted to.

"I know babe."

"Why are you like this? You used to be the same wherever you were. Now, when you're with the guys you're crude and a total jerk and you forget about me." She crosses her arms and stares out her window.

Leo looks over at her for a split second before moving his eyes back to the road, "Babe, I just-I dunno. You make me wanna be better, but then the guys make me wanna be…They make me wanna be a guy."

"_I_ want you to be a guy. I fell in love with you as a guy. Is there something you aren't telling me, sweetheart?" she asks, turning to face him again and smirking. Damn him for leaving it so open.

Leo gives a short, somewhat-bitter laugh, "Actually, there's something I wanna ask you. It's why I've been so busy recently. And I'm sorry it's so late, babe, but I hope that when you see it you'll forgive me."

They arrive home a few short, silent minutes later and Leo helps Michelle from her seat. She smiles at him and they walk into the garage, AKA Leo's workshop. Leo puts his hands over her eyes as he leads her into the garage and talks her up for the big reveal. "I've been wanting to do this for such a long time, Ice Queen, but I wanted everything to be perfect." He lifts his hands from her eyes to reveal a doghouse, more of a dog mansion really. At first, Michelle is slightly disappointed, because she thought he was going to ask her something else, but then he whistles and a pug puppy comes bounding out the front door of the dog-mansion, he's carrying something in his mouth that Michelle can't identify. Michelle leans down and picks up the puppy, whom she squeezes to her chest because she _loves_ pugs. They were her favorite dog breed.

"His name is Samson." Leo tells her.

Michelle kisses his head, "After that super-strong guy from the Bible? Leo, you really shouldn't have-" she's cut off by Samson dropping the thing in his mouth, a black velvet box, it falls to the ground in front of Michelle.

Leo leans down on one knee and picks it up, he dusts it off quickly before opening it and revealing the ring to Michelle. "Michelle, will you marry me?"

Michelle puts down her new puppy and kneels so she's eye-level with Leo. She looks closely at the ring. It's a gold band, the middle is diamond, and surrounding it to make it into a flower shape is her birthstone, garnet. "Leo…" she says softly, plucking the ring from the box and turning it over in her fingers. "Leo, did you make this for me?" she lifts her eyes from the gorgeous ring to her boyfriend's reddish-brown orbs. Her icy eyes are starting to water as they ask the same question her mouth did.

Leo nods slowly, his eyes moving from her fingers delicately holding the ring, to her watering eyes, to her mouth asking the question, "Yeah, that's what I've been working on for so long." He looks at the ground and scratches the back of his head nervously. "I got the gems from Hazel, and I wanted to ask on our anniversary, but there were so many other things I needed to do and I'm sor-"

She cuts him off by pressing her mouth to his, she puts the ring on her finger before digging her hands into his hair and pulling him closer to her. He kisses her back, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling them from the ground. She tilts her head up to press her mouth firmer to his and he pulls her onto his toes.

"I love you, idiot, of course I'll marry you." The tears are flowing freely now, and Leo wipes them away. "I love you with every fiber of my being and I can't believe you did all this for me…"

The garage door goes up and Michelle is looking at Percy, who is holding Annabeth's hand of all things, Jason and Piper are smirking at her, and Frank and Hazel are waving little flags that say "LeChelle 4Ever". Michelle feels like crying again. "Guuuuyyysssss," she whimpers, running to them and pulling them all into a group hug. "Did you _all_ plan this?"

Percy nods, "Yeah, it was Annabeth's idea to make you even madder before Leo asked."

Annabeth smirks, "I knew if it was too easy you'd be disappointed." Michelle squeezes her in a super-tight hug. Once she lets go and Annabeth can breath again Annabeth continues, "And there's one more thing…"

"SURPRIIIISSSSSEEEE!" squeals a voice so similar to Michelle's own Michelle knows who it is immediately.

"NIIIIKKKK!" the younger twin cries, running to her sister right behind the group. Next to her is her boyfriend Connor. Michelle hugs him, too. "THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING HERE?!"

"LIKE I'D MISS MY TWIN'S ENGAGEMENT?! ARE YOU INSANE?!"

"WELL, NIKKI, SHE MISSED YOURS!" Connor pipes up, and Michelle's eyes go to her sister's ring finger. She gasps and the white-gold band and diamond.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!"

"I WANTED THE DOUBLE WEDDING TO BE A SURPRISE, DUH!"

"DOUBLE WEDDING?!" Michelle screams, incredulous.

"YES! DOUBLE WEDDING!" Leo chimes in, swinging Michelle around excitedly. She laughs and hugs her twin sister again, then glares at her fiance.

"I still want to know why you've been so different lately." she tells him, hands on her hips.

"_Because_ gorgeous, I wanted this to double as a make-up and an engagement."

"You're lucky I love you."

"You have no idea, babe."

* * *

><p><strong>I feel pretty "meh" about this. It may be because I wasn't listening to this song <em>at all<em> while writing it. . Sorry if it's not what you expected Eliz. I'll probably do a different one, with more fighting. Also, this was an AU, sorry. .**

**NEXT IS THE CONNIK! *squeals* I'M SO EXCITED! YAY AUS!**

**THEN I HAVE AN IDEA FOR ANOTHER SAD LECHELLE! ^.^**

**THEN I'M WRITING ELIZ'S OTHER REQUEST! ^.^ THAT WILL BE IN A SEPARATE STORY TITLED "The Canon Character Ships"! WOOOO!**

**Speaking of, keep sending in requests, I love suggestions when I can't think of what to write.**

**-Chelle/OWS**


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